The Letters of Utrecht, Street sculpture in Utrecht, Netherlands.
The Letters of Utrecht is a public artwork in the center of Utrecht, the Netherlands, where individual letters are carved into cobblestones to form a continuously growing poem. Each stone carries a single character, and the sequence runs along a central street section that visitors walk through on foot.
The project began in 2012, when stonemasons first carved hundreds of letters into the street surface and the city's mayor inaugurated the work in a public ceremony. Since then, new verses have been added year after year, and the poem has continued to grow.
Local poets from Utrecht contribute verses to this public poem, which writes itself into the pavement one letter at a time. Visitors who walk slowly along the street can read the text and sometimes spot the names of the authors carved alongside their words.
The work runs along a long stretch of street, so it is worth setting aside enough time to read the poem from start to finish without rushing. Walking slowly and keeping an eye on the pavement helps, since the letters are set into the ground rather than displayed at eye level.
Every Saturday at 1 p.m., stonemasons gather on site to carve a new letter into the pavement in front of anyone who happens to be passing by. This means that with the right timing, a visitor can watch the poem grow by exactly one character.
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