Every design for Houten

Beneath the old centre of Houten lie the remains of a Roman villa, found in 1957 and now made visible in the street pattern. People had settled here on the raised banks of the Rhine long before that.

Houten sits south-east of the city of Utrecht, enclosed by the A12, the A27 and the river Lek. That position near Utrecht and the railway to 's-Hertogenbosch is why the village was chosen in 1966 as a growth centre, and the urban planner Robert Derks shaped New Town Houten from the start: a green zone running through the north like a spine, a pentagonal green belt in Houten-Zuid, and streets where cars share the road with bicycle paths.

The Oude Dorp still has its Protestant Church from 1563, the Catholic church from 1884 and De Engel, a tavern already in the sixteenth century. Around the town lie the ruins of Kasteel Wulven and Mottekasteel Het Rondeel. If Houten is home, you know both towns at once: the old village square and the new streets that grew around it.