Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbanation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.

Utrecht's ancient city centre features many buildings and structures from the early middle ages. It has been the religious centre of the Netherlands since the eighth century. Until the golden age, Utrecht was the city of most importance of the Netherlands until Amsterdam became its cultural and most populous centre.

Utrecht is host to Utrecht University, the largest university of the Netherlands, as well as several other institutes for higher education. Due to its central position within the country, it is an important transport hub for both rail and road transport. It has the second highest number of cultural events in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam.

Utrecht city has an active cultural life and aims to become cultural capital of Europe in 2018. There are several theatres and theatre companies.  Utrecht is host to the Netherlands Film Festival. There is a specialised museum of automatically playing musical instruments. Located at the Oudegracht is the rock club Tivoli (which has a second location just outside the centre). There are several other venues for music throughout the city.

There are many art galleries in Utrecht. There are also several foundations to support art, and artists. Training of artists is done at the Utrecht school of the Arts. The Centraal Museum has many exhibitions on the arts, including a permanent exhibition on the works of Utrecht resident illustrator Dick Bruna, who is best known for creating Miffy ("Nijntje", in Dutch). Utrecht also houses one of the landmarks of modern architecture, the 1924 Rietveld House, which is listed on UNESCO's  world heritage sites.

   

  

Utrecht is home to the premier league (professional) football club F.C. Utrecht, which plays in Stadium Nieuw Galgenwaard. It is also the home of Kampong, the largest (amateur) sportsclub of the Netherlands (4,500 members), SV Kampon. Kampong features fieldhockey, soccer, cricket, tennis, squash and jeu de boules. Kampong's men and women top hockey squads play in the highest Dutch hockey league, the Rabohoofdklasse.

To involve the city population as a whole (rather than the elite alone) in the cultural riches of the city, Utrecht city, in collaboration with the different cultural organisations, regularly organise cultural Sundays. During a thematic Sunday several organisations create a program, which is open to everyone without, or with a very much reduced, admission fee. Furthermore there are many initiatives for amateur artists; e.g. in the performing arts, painting and sculpture. 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. Additionally there are also several private initiatives. The city council provides coupons for discounts to inhabitants who receive welfare to be used with many of the initiatives.

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