
Sonnenborgh Observatory
Sixteenth-century stone bastion crowned by a nineteenth-century observatory with three telescope domes.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Sonnenborgh in Utrecht starts with a single measurement in the walls of a sixteenth-century bastion ordered by Emperor Charles the Fifth against the cannon. It follows the stone fortress into the hands of university chemists around sixteen ninety-five, and the professor Johann Conrad Barchusen who worked in its gun chambers. Listen from the top of the bastion, with the observatory domes in view.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Stadskasteel Oudaen - Restaurant en Vergaderlocatie in Utrecht
Medieval brick city castle with battlements, a lofty knights' hall and a brewery in its vaults.
Market Vredenburg
Open-air market square on the site of a demolished imperial castle, busy with stalls three days a week.
Penitentiaire Inrichting Wolvenplein
Nineteenth-century cellular prison on an old city bastion, closed in 2014 and awaiting new life.
University Museum Utrecht | UMU
University museum of scientific heritage, home to a rare single-lens microscope of brass.
Oude Hortus
Historic university botanical garden with an ancient ginkgo, old greenhouses and an orangery café.
Park Lepelenburg
Former city bastion turned leafy park with open lawns, a bandstand and a busy events calendar.