Utrecht is the fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, located in the center of the country. In 50 AD, the Romans built a castellum fort along the Rhine to protect the Roman Empire's northern boundaries from the Germanic tribes, and the fort - known as Traiectum - housed 500 Roman soldiers, while the nearby settlements housed artisans, traders, and soldiers' wives and children. Traiectum became known as Trecht in Dutch, and it was called "Utrecht" ("downriver Trecht") to distinguish it from Maastricht ("upriver Trecht"). In 275 AD, the Romans abandoned Traiectum, and the Franks later inhabited the area. In 723 AD, Charles Martel gave the fortress of Utrecht to the Bishop of Utrecht, and Utrecht became one of the Roman Catholic Church's strongest bases in the Low Countries (Pope Adrian VI, the last non-Italian pope before Pope John Paul II, was Utrecht-born). After the fall of the Frisian city of Dorestad in 850 AD, Utrecht became one of the most important cities in the Netherlands. Utrecht was granted city rights by Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in 1122, and several canals and wharfs were built in the city. In 1528, the Bishopric of Utrecht lost its secular power to Emperor Charles V, who unified the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries into the Habsburg Netherlands. In 1579, the northern seven provinces formed the Protestant Union of Utrecht to fight against Spanish rule during the Dutch Revolt, and, in 1580, the new Calvinist state abolished the bishoprics. By the mid-17th century, Utrecht was still 40% Catholic, and even more so among the rural nobility and gentry. In 1672, during the Franco-Dutch War, Utrecht briefly fell to the French. In 1713, the War of the Spanish Succession was ended by a peace treaty signed at Utrecht. During the early 19th century, the old town walls were demolished to allow for Utrecht to expand, and, after the opening of the first railroad in 1843, Utrecht became the main hub of the Utrecht railway network. During the Industrial Revolution, Utrecht expanded beyond its medieval center, and, in 1853, the Bishopric of Utrecht was re-established. During the 1920s and 1930s, new middle-class residential areas were built, and new neighborhoods were built after the end of World War II in 1945. In 2019, Utrecht had a population of 357,179 people, while its urban area had 489,734 residents.
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