A large white canvas hangs on a fence on the Utrechtse Neude. “Here archaeologists dig for the history of Utrecht,” it says. Behind the fence is a hodgepodge of stone foundations. There is also a thick layer of dark soil with chunks of pottery. “An old embankment layer,” explains Gerben Beeuwkes. He’s in charge of the dig. In a corner of the one hundred square meter excavation site are the remains of a beer cellar, where rubbish and feces were dumped. “We found a lot of glassware there this morning,” says Beeuwkes. “Including a complete decorated wine bottle. All early 16th century.”
During a large-scale renovation of Café Le Journal the Neude, new underground spaces are being constructed. And that offers the archaeologists from Erfgoed Utrecht the opportunity to delve deep into the history of the city. They investigate what remains of medieval Utrecht and what the role of the Neude was at that time.
This is the third time in a short time that the archaeologists have been able to dig on and near the Neude. In 2018, when the main post office was converted into a library, archaeologists excavated remains of the Saint Cecilia Monastery from 1400. Food scraps in a cesspool told us that the sisters enjoyed the rich Roman life. And last year, prior to the redevelopment of the Neude and the planting of trees, the archaeologists discovered paving stones from 1465 and 1472. They also came across the well that Charles V had constructed in 1529.
The excavation at Café Le Journal, to the left of the large roof with the solar panels.
Photos Heritage Utrecht
In recent decades – Utrecht has had a municipal archaeological service since 1972 – Utrecht archaeologists have found medieval traces in many places in the city. “But we have never made a real synthesis,” says archaeologist Herre Wynia, who has worked at the service for about thirty years. Don’t ask him why. But there is good news: “We are working on a research agenda; citizens can also have their say; it will be ready next year.” Historians have already done the necessary synthesizing research, he adds.
One of those historians is René de Kam, curator of the Middle Ages at the Catharijne Convent and who works one day a week at Erfgoed Utrecht. “I am currently writing a dissertation, partly based on building history and archaeological data, on the organization of public works in Utrecht between 1400 and 1535.”
To build the Neude, we have to go far back in time, he explains. In 1122, when Utrecht received city rights, a city wall was built around a large area of 135 hectares, which was certainly not all built-up. “Only a few thousand people lived there at the time, certainly not more than 3,000. Around 1500 everything was fully built up and Utrecht had approximately 25,000 inhabitants.” The Neude, then a swampy area, fell within the wall. By raising the site several meters, it was turned into a square. “Utrecht had and has hardly any squares. The Neude became a market square and transshipment.”
According to De Kam, this had to do with two important supply lines for the city. “Utrecht was connected to the Hanseatic cities via the northern Oudegracht, the Vecht and the Zuiderzee. And via the Lek, the Vaartsche Rijn [een in 1127 gegraven kanaal] and the southern Oudegracht, items from the Rhineland, Brabant, Flanders and the Maasland entered the city.” De Neude was right in between.
Beeuwkes sees from his excavation that these supply lines also determined the early layout of the plots. “The houses were not oriented towards the Neude, but towards the Oudegracht and Ganzenmarkt behind it, where the goods arrived.”
The Neude may have been paved early on, De Kam thinks. “From De Bilt there is a road to Utrecht that was paved around 1290 at the city’s expense; via the Wittevrouwenpoort the route ended at the Neude.” There was also a hygienic side to that paving. “Cattle markets were held here, a paved square is easier to clean afterwards than an unpaved square.”
The Neude was also the site of knightly tournaments around 1440, says Wynia enthusiastically. “There are still bills for the construction of the stands and the supply of more than 300 cartloads of sand from the Janskerkhof. Unfortunately, we did not encounter that sand layer.”
Boulders (right) and a well.
Photos Heritage Utrecht
Last year they came across a monumental well that Charles V had constructed. Wynia: “He was known from accounts, but we no longer knew where he was.” The accounts also make it clear that Charles V spent a lot of money to have an artist make his coat of arms in natural stone. “That makes it clear that the square not only had an economic, but also a political function,” concludes De Kam. The Habsburg monarch, who had taken power in the city in 1528, wanted to please the citizens with the well.
Beeuwkes will briefly return to his finds in a beer cellar. “In Utrecht, the cesspools and beer cellars that we dig up are usually empty. The municipal council sold the contents as manure.”
That medieval custom has had an effect for a long time, De Kam knows. “Because of the proceeds raised by the bear, the municipality postponed the construction of the sewer for a long time. They only really started in the 1930s.”
Finally, De Kam has a fun fact: the street pattern of the city center of Utrecht is still medieval. Anyone who uses Braun and Hogenberg’s map from 1572 will not get lost. He finds his way to the Neude without any problems.
