University Lustrum 1926

Utrecht University has been throwing birthday parties since the 17th century, but the 1926 lustrum celebration was something else entirely. Every year on March 26th, students mark the founding of one of the Netherlands' oldest universities, an institution the city council first dreamed up as far back as 1470, centuries before it actually opened its doors.

By 1926, the world was gripped by Tutankhamun fever. Howard Carter had cracked open that famous tomb just four years earlier, and suddenly everyone from Paris to Utrecht couldn't get enough of ancient Egypt. The students leaned all the way into it. They organized a massive nighttime spectacle called "The Victory of Horemheb," transforming the streets of Utrecht into something resembling a scene from an ancient epic. Pharaoh Akhenaten was the guest of honour, a symbolic Tutankhamun made an appearance, and Horemheb himself rolled through on a chariot.

And then there were the elephants. Real ones, walking through the heart of Utrecht after dark, surrounded by soldiers, extras, and torchlight. The city hadn't seen anything like it.