Home of Anna Maria van Schurman

A facade stone is attached to Achter de Dom 8 in Utrecht that commemorates the seventeenth-century savant Anna Maria van Schurman. The University of Utrecht honours her as the first female student in our country. In her time, women were not admitted to the university, but thanks to her perseverance and connections, she managed to acquire an exceptional position: she was allowed to attend lectures from behind a curtain, out of sight of her male fellow students.

According to a persistent legend, which is also promoted as serious history by the university, Queen Christina of Sweden is said to have visited the strict Calvinist Anna during her conversion journey to Rome in 1654. She is said to have even been in the company of Jesuits who were outdone by Anna in a theological dispute. Research has shown that this cannot possibly have happened. Everything indicates that the story about a meeting between the two famous women was made up by ministers who aimed their arrows at Christina after she had converted to Catholicism later that same year.

Historische Routes