Maastricht

Maastricht sits in the narrow southern tail of the Netherlands, closer to Brussels and Cologne than to Amsterdam, and it feels it. This is a city of Roman foundations and Romanesque churches, of squares set out for sitting rather than passing through, and of a food culture that owes more to Belgium and France than to the north. Its most photographed interior is Boekhandel Dominicanen, a bookshop installed inside a thirteenth-century Dominican church with a three-storey steel bookcase filling one aisle. Beneath the city, the Sint-Pietersberg caves run for kilometres through soft marl quarried since Roman times, used as shelters in successive wars and walkable only with a guide. The Vrijthof square anchors the centre, and in February the city gives itself over entirely to carnival.

History

Maastricht grew from a Roman settlement, Trajectum ad Mosam, the crossing of the Maas, into a medieval centre of river trade and religion; in the 16th century it became a garrison town and in the 19th one of the country's early industrial centres (Wikipedia, Maastricht).

What's there

• Boekhandel Dominicanen - a bookshop inside a medieval Dominican church, free to enter.
• Sint-Pietersberg caves - kilometres of quarried marl passages, guided tours only.
• The Vrijthof - the great square with the Sint-Servaas basilica and Sint-Jan's red tower.
• Wyck and the Sint-Servaas bridge - the older quarter across the Meuse, good for walking and eating.

When to go

Late spring to early autumn for terrace weather in the squares. February brings a carnival that shuts the city down in the best sense. December has one of the better Christmas markets on the Vrijthof.

Things to know

Maastricht is far from the rest of the Netherlands, and a day trip from Amsterdam eats most of the day in travel. The caves are cold year-round and can only be entered on a guided tour, which needs booking in season. Carnival is genuinely wonderful and genuinely chaotic, and hotel prices reflect it.

Nearby

Belgian Liège and German Aachen are both under an hour; the hills of South Limburg are unusual terrain for the Netherlands.

Key facts