Утрехт мұнарасы: Нидерландтың символы

Bell tower in Utrecht, Netherlands

The Dom Tower (Domtoren ) of Utrecht is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, at 112.32 metres (368,5 feet) in height. It is considered the symbol of Utrecht. The cathedral was never fully completed due to lack of money. Since the unfinished nave collapsed in 1674, the Dom tower has been a freestanding tower. The tower stands at the spot where the city of Utrecht originated almost 2,000 years ago. The tower consists of two square blocks, topped by a much lighter lantern. One of the most striking features is the absence of visible buttresses. Upon completion in 1382 the tower stood 109 metres tall. However the height was increased during the restorations in 1910, to its present height of 112.5 metres. The Dom tower was a multifunctional building. In addition to being a belfry, it contained a private chapel of the Bishop of Utrecht on the first floor. It also served as a watchtower; the tower guard was housed on the second floor of the lower square block.

The Dom Tower has an exceptional peal of fourteen ringing bells, weighing 32 tonnes in total. In 1505 Geert van Wou, then the most famous bell founder of the Netherlands, made a harmonious peal of thirteen bells. The seven smallest bells, sold in 1664 to finance the new carillon, were replaced in 1982 with new bells by Eijsbouts. The largest bell, the Salvator, has a weight of 8,200 kg and a diameter of 227 cm. In 1625, Jacob van Eyck became carillon player of the Dom Tower. In 1664, a new carillon was installed by Juriaan Sprakel of Zutphen, with a mechanism consisting of 35 chimes,

The cathedral's nave was never completely finished, and on the night of August 1, 1674, a tornado destroyed this part of the cathedral, but the tower was undamaged. The remaining section of the church and the tower were never reconnected, and the Domplein Square now separates the two structures. In the summer of 2004, however, a mock nave was constructed out of scaffolding to commemorate the missing link. The floorplan of the missing section is shown by the multicoloured paving of the square. In 1836 the top floor of the tower was heavily damaged in a storm and demolition of the tower was seriously considered. However, it was subsequently restored, a process which took five years.

The tower has its own visitor centre, RonDom (which refers to both the Dutch word rond or rondom, meaning around or surrounding and the name of the church emphasised by the capital D), which is located in the square. As well as stocking a range of souvenirs, they organise a number of activities centred on the tower, including regular guided tours which allow people to climb the 465 steps to the top of the Dom Tower. Broadcast on 102.3 MHz FM, Radio DOM was part of the exhibition Panorama 2000, organised by the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. This restriction seems to have been dispensed for plans in the developing suburban area in the west of Utrecht (Leidsche Rijn) and a skyscraper of 262 metres in height has been proposed, challenging this long standing tradition. The plans for this tower, however, were cancelled in 2010 due to the economic crisis.

A replica of the Dom Tower has been constructed in the Dutch themed amusement park; Huis Ten Bosch (theme park) at Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan. Google Street View