The municipality of Utrecht is located in the eastern part of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Netherlands, and includes Haarzuilens, Vleuten and De Meern.

[8] Utrecht's ancient city centre features many buildings and structures, several dating as far back as the High Middle Ages.

Due to its central position within the country, it is an important hub for both rail and road transport; it has the busiest railway station in the Netherlands, Utrecht Centraal.

In Roman times, the name of the Utrecht fortress was simply Traiectum, denoting its location at a possible Rhine crossing.

Under the influence of the growing realms of the Franks, during Dagobert I's reign in the 7th century, a church was built within the walls of the Roman fortress.

[12] In 723, the Frankish leader Charles Martel bestowed the fortress in Utrecht and the surrounding lands as the base of the bishops.

[17] The Veluwe region was seized by Guelders, but large areas in the modern province of Overijssel remained as the Oversticht.

[27] On the wharfs, storage facilities (werfkelders) were built, on top of which the main street, including houses, was constructed.

In 1528 the bishop lost secular power over both Neder- and Oversticht—which included the city of Utrecht—to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

Charles V combined the Seventeen Provinces (the current Benelux and the northern parts of France) as a personal union.

The heavily fortified castle Vredenburg was built to house a large garrison whose main task was to maintain control over the city.

The stadtholders disapproved of the independent course of the Utrecht bourgeoisie and brought the city under much more direct control of the republic, shifting the power towards its dominant province Holland.

Utrecht remained an atypical city in the new republic being about 40% Catholic in the mid-17th century, and even more so among the elite groups, who included many rural nobility and gentry with town houses there.

The halt to building before construction of flying buttresses in the 15th century now proved to be the undoing of the cathedral of St Martin church's central section which collapsed, creating the current Dom square between the tower and choir.

With the Industrial Revolution finally gathering speed in the Netherlands and the ramparts taken down, Utrecht began to grow far beyond its medieval centre.

Following the end of World War II, the city grew considerably when new neighbourhoods such as Overvecht, Kanaleneiland, Hoograven [nl] and Lunetten were built.

This development led to the construction of the shopping mall Hoog Catharijne [nl], the music centre Vredenburg (Hertzberger, 1979), and conversion of part of the ancient canal structure into a highway (Catherijnebaan).

The redeveloped music centre TivoliVredenburg opened in 2014 with the original Vredenburg and Tivoli concert and rock and jazz halls brought together in a single building.

[8] Utrecht has a young population, with many inhabitants in the age category from 20 and 30 years, due to the presence of a large university.

Utrecht is the centre of a densely populated area, a fact which makes concise definitions of its agglomeration difficult, and somewhat arbitrary.

The smaller Utrecht agglomeration of continuously built-up areas counts some 420,000 inhabitants and includes Nieuwegein, IJsselstein and Maarssen.

It is sometimes argued that the close by municipalities De Bilt, Zeist, Houten, Vianen, Driebergen-Rijsenburg (Utrechtse Heuvelrug), and Bunnik should also be counted towards the Utrecht agglomeration, bringing the total to 640,000 inhabitants.

[38] Utrecht's cityscape is dominated by the Dom Tower, the tallest belfry in the Netherlands and originally part of the Cathedral of Saint Martin.

[49] Utrecht is the only city among the four largest in the Netherlands (the others being Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam) that awards a public transportation concession by tender.

Furthermore, it acts as departure and arrival place of many coach companies serving holiday resorts in Spain and France—and during winter in Austria and Switzerland.

Two of the most important major roads serve the city of Utrecht: the A12 and A2 motorways connect Amsterdam, Arnhem, The Hague and Maastricht, as well as Belgium and Germany.

ProRail is headquartered in De Inktpot [nl] (The Inkwell), the largest brick building in the Netherlands[61] (the "UFO" featured on its façade stems from an art program in 2000).

Although street art is illegal in Utrecht, the Utrechtse Kabouter, a picture of a gnome with a red hat, became a common sight in 2004.

The city subsidises an organisation for amateur education in arts aimed at all inhabitants (Utrechts Centrum voor de Kunsten), as does the university for its staff and students.

The city has several music venues such as TivoliVredenburg, Tivoli De Helling, ACU, Moira, EKKO, dB's and RASA.