Maastricht Travel guide

Maastricht is a city of some 120,000 people located on the Maas River in Limburg, the southernmost province of The Netherlands.
Over the years, Maastricht has been an important centre of trade, industry, communications, and education.
The city has a long tradition as a European crossroads, and its history has helped to make it a truly international city.



Maastricht - History

IMAGE:The town of Maastricht was established around a crossing of the Maas River by Julius Caesar in 50 B.C., and was therefore known to the Romans as Mosae Trajectum. The bridge at Maastricht was located on the Roman road from Gaul to Germany built by the Emperor Augustus. Since the river itself formed a second communication route, a small trading settlement grew up around the bridge. Thus, as long as Roman power remained secure, Maastricht remained a peaceful trading settlement linking several regions of northern Europe. But in the third century, Roman power weakened, and Germanic tribes from the area east of the Rhine began to attack the more settled areas to the west, and a number of important towns, including Maastricht, were fortified with castella: walled fortifications with round towers and a dry moat.

The decline of Roman power was accompanied by an increase in Christian influence in Maastricht. The Germanic incursions which resulted in the construction of the castellum prompted St Servaas, the bishop of Tongres, to seek refuge in Maastricht. The bishop established a Christian community within the castellum walls which became the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk and the seat of the new diocese of Maastricht. When Servaas died, around the year 384, he was buried beside the Roman road outside the castellum. About 150 years later, Bishop Monulphus built a chapel on this site which was to grow into the church and chapter of St Servaas, the city's second greater church.

The decline of Roman power was also accompanied by an increase of Frankish influence in Maastricht. When Roman troops finally withdrew about 402, Maastricht fell under the rule of the Franks, and, by 630, the Frankish kings had built a palace near the church of St Servaas. During the reign of Charlemagne (768-814), the capital of the Carolingian Empire was located at Aachen, some fifty kilometres from Maastricht, and the church and religious community of St Servaas continued to benefit from the patronage of the Carolingians for two centuries. In fact, the last of the Carolingian rulers is buried in the crypt of St Servaas.

IMAGE:In 722, Bishop Hubertus moved the bishop's see to Liθge and Onze Lieve Vrouwe and the former Roman parts of the city then fell under the authority of the prince bishop of Liθge who retained rights of taxation and jurisdiction over his part of Maastricht until the French revolution. The Carolingian part of the city, centered around St Servaas, had a series of overlords, but always remained independent of the see of Liège. As a result, Maastricht became a divided city built around two rival churches. By the 12th century, authority over the part of the town outside the castellum passed to the Dukes of Brabant. In the 15th century, Brabant became part of the expanding Burgundian Empire, and when Maria of Burgundy married Maximillian of Austria in 1477, this part of the city came under Hapsburg jurisdiction. Finally, when the Spanish were driven out in 1632, control passed to the Staten General, a college of representatives of the provinces of the Dutch Republic.

In the 12th century, Maastricht benefited from the general economic expansion of Western Europe. In 1229, a new wall was built to include St Servaas within the fortified city, and a new stone bridge, which still stands, was completed in 1298. The population increased, trade boomed and the local leather and cloth industries prospered. Maastricht became such a thriving centre of commerce that around 1350 a new wall had to be built around the city, doubling the area enclosed and making new building possible.

Religion and cultural life also benefited from the city's new prosperity. The city's two oldest churches, Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk and St Servaas, were enlarged and altered, and several new Gothic churches were built. Several religious orders built monasteries and convents in Maastricht, which brought sculptors, painters, and craftsmen working in gold, silver, and ivory to the region. Maasland art flourished.

After about 1530, international events conspired to reverse the city's fortunes. The Reformation brought religious conflict to Maastricht, and the revolt of the Dutch provinces against Spanish domination brought war. In 1576, Maastricht rose against the Spanish but the rebellion was brutally crushed. In 1579, when Maastricht again joined the rebels, the Spanish prepared to crush resistance once and for all. Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, was sent to make an example of the city.

In March 1579, the Spanish troops besieged Maastricht. The garrison and the civilian population held out for four months, hoping to be relieved by the armies of William of Orange, but on June 29, 1579, Spanish troops entered the city, rampaging through the streets, killing, burning, and plundering. The final cost to the city of this second Spanish Fury was some 2,500 dead out of an estimated total population of 15,000.

In spite of two attempts to retake the city by William of Orange and his troops (1592 and 1594), Maastricht remained in Spanish hands until it was recaptured by Frederik Hendrik in 1632. Recovery from the Spanish siege of 1579 was slow, and Maastricht was reduced to the role of garrison town for 50 years. But Frederik Hendrik's victory in 1632 began a period of stability and religious toleration. Most importantly, there began a period of relative peace. Although this peace was periodically interrupted by wars with the French, and a great deal of energy was put into modernizing the city's defenses, there was also a new wave of civilian building. Stone houses replaced wooden ones. Drainage and lighting made the streets safer and more pleasant and city ordinances banned certain industries to reduce the risk of fire. Major building projects were undertaken, like the construction of the new town hall in 1662, and the erection of four churches in Classical or Baroque style.

Maastricht's short time of peace and stability was abruptly ended in 1794, when French revolutionary troops occupied the city and swept away centuries of tradition. The wealth and many of the buildings were turned over to secular or military purposes. The divided allegiance of the city was ended after 1000 years when Maastricht became a part of the new French département de la Meuse inférieur. But after the defeat of the French in the Napoleonic wars, the map of Europe was redrawn, and Holland and Belgium were combined to form a strong buffer state to the north of France. Maastricht was once again part of an independent Netherlands.

In 1830 the Belgians rose against the monarch and government of the north and declared their independence. Geographically Maastricht should have become part of Belgium, but the garrison under General Dibbets remained loyal to the House of Orange and in 1839, to the disgruntlement of the Belgians, the province of Limburg was partitioned, Maastricht remaining in Dutch hands. The early 19th century was a difficult period for Maastricht, once again trying to pick up the pieces after foreign occupation. After Petrus Regout opened the Sphinx pottery works and made his fortune, others followed his example and Maastricht became The Netherlands' first industrial city, with flourishing ceramic works and paper mills. But, while industrialization brought great wealth to certain sections of the population, it also created a growing urban proletariat, factory workers housed in miserable conditions, poorly paid and prone to sickness and epidemics. Still, the city grew as a result of industrialization, and in 1867-8 large sections of the city walls and defenses were dismantled to make way for new expansion and development. New building projects were initiated and wide boulevards laid out.

The Catholic Church experienced a revival at the end of the 19th century, and renewed interest in the medieval period -seen as a high point in Catholic history- led to restoration work on the city's oldest churches. The social life of the city recovered, too, with the introduction of annual Carnival celebrations.

The Netherlands managed to remain neutral during the First World War and Maastricht received a flood of refugees, particularly from Belgium. Like the rest of the country, it suffered high unemployment during the Depression and labour relations throughout the period were acrimonious. Maastricht was occupied by the Germans in 1940 and was the first city in The Netherlands to be liberated in 1944.

Limburg, the narrow, Southeastern province that is wedged between Belgium and Germany. This is where there are rolling hills, caves and castles. Where Romans ruled for more than four centuries. It is where the Dutch go sightseeing and where Latin ancestry and cross-border influences make the people different from their Northern compatriots. Here, white asparagus are harvested in May, and grapes in the Fall and they eat a cheese that's called "rommedoe", which rhymes with shoe and, some say, smells like an old one. The capital of this province is Maastricht, a city, steeped in history that has preserved much of the architectural evidence of that past.




Fashion, patisserie and antiques are particularly plentiful. The sophisticated shop windows in the Stokstraat area are the height of temptation. The sunny lifestyle of the people of Maastricht is infectious. Maastricht sparkles! Restaurants, bars and pavement cafes around. Nowhere in the Netherlands will you find such a choice of culinary delights within such a small radius. In Maastricht, students and scholars alike can meet colleagues from all over the world, and enjoy first-class research facilities, like the University of Limburg libraries and the Maastricht Archives. Combined with its central location and proximity to many leading European universities, this helps make Maastricht a haven for teaching and learning. The post-war years have seen the restoration of the city's historic centre, and a great expansion of trade and industry. The city is now home to the University of Limburg and at least six other educational institutions. Maastricht has begun to capitalize upon its history by emphasizing its international character and its location in the heart of Europe.

In 1981 the city hosted the summit meeting of the EEC heads of state, and in 1991 the Treaty of Maastricht was negotiated and signed in the city. The creation of the EuroRegion centered on the cities of Aachen, Cologne, Liège, and Maastricht is a further sign that Maastricht is slowly ceasing to be a city on the frontier between two powers and is returning to the central European location it occupied during the reign of Charlemagne.