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Province and city to celebrate tri-centennial of Treaty of Utrecht


Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill

UTRECHT - Dutch tourism promoters, which have used Rembrandt, Van Gogh and De Ruyter anniversaries in the past to attract tourists, are discovering there is potential as well in celebrating anniversaries of international peace treaties concluded on Dutch territory. Attention is currently being paid to the tri-centennial of the Treaty of Utrecht in 2015. The accord then ended the Spanish Succession War and Queen Anne’s War, both fought between 1702 and 1703. It also brought an end to many bloody regional conflicts. The Dutch fought alongside England, the winner, but never regained its leading role as a world naval power. Utrecht, which unlike Holland, Zeeland and Friesland, never had its own navy, plans to invest significant funds in preparing for its European celebration. The $27,5 million will be invested in cultural institutions and noteworthy international programming. As a further benefit, authorities are also hoping Utrecht will get its turn at being the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2018.