The Cathedral of Saint Martin or Dom Church was the Cathedral of the Province of Utrecht during the Middle Ages. Once this was the country's largest cathedral, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, and the one church in the Netherlands that closely resembles the original French style that later became known as Gothic, even though in contrast to its French examples it only has one tower. All other Gothic churches in the Netherlands belong to one of the many regional variants.
Building took place from 1254 until well into the 16th century. But calvinism came and took its toll. In 1572, during a wave of calvinist inspired vandalism that spread all over the Low Countries, much of the ornaments on both exterior and interior were destroyed, and when the church was finally taken from the catholics and given to the protestants much of the enormous building was neglected and left to fall apart, and so it did. The still unfinished and insufficiently supported nave collapsed in a storm of 1674. What remains are the transept and the Dom Tower. Where the rest of the cathedral used to stand is now a square, and differently colored stones indicate the original outlines of the church, and of its predecessors.
