History is up for grabs in the Dutch city of Utrecht. In 2021, the University celebrated its 385th anniversary. An excellent reason to bring this history to life with a special website: the Utrecht Time Machine.

The time machine allows you to go on a surprise tour through the city. Tiles with QR codes are placed at 30 locations throughout the city. Users can scan the tiles and learn about the history of those places. Articles are enriched with Instagram-like stories using images and video. All pages are available in both English and Dutch.

The Utrecht Time Machine was developed in a consortium in with various institutions, including the city archive, historical association, municipality and university. The products and pilots for Utrecht Time Machine are being developed in the ‘Living Pasts‘ course at Utrecht University. The project is part of the European initiative Time Machine. This project aims to map 2000 years of European history.