St. Catherine's is part of a medieval monastery, which also houses the Catherine's Convent Museum. The Carmelites of Utrecht began building a monastery here in 1468, but since 1529 its church has been dedicated to the patron saint Catherine of Alexandria. The Reformation was disastrous for the church and the Catholic faith was completely forbidden later in 1580. The convent lay in ruins until a large-scale renovation project was undertaken in 1955. Based on drawings from 1636 by Pieter Saenredam, the church was largely purged of its Gothic attire, which explains its rather sober interior today.