Nijmegen

Nijmegen was Ulpia Noviomagus, a Roman town that received market rights around AD 100, which gives it the standing claim to be the oldest city in the Netherlands. Charlemagne had a palace on the Valkhof hill above the river and the remains of the medieval castle there include the Barbarossa ruin and the Sint-Nicolaaskapel, a sixteen-sided building of about 1030 modelled on Aachen. The centre was destroyed by an accidental American bombing raid in February 1944 and then fought over, so much of it is postwar. What is new is the river: between 2012 and 2016 the Waal dyke at Lent was moved several hundred metres back and a secondary channel dug, creating an island and a park in the middle of the city as part of the national Room for the River programme - a large, visible piece of a policy shift away from raising dykes. It has become the city's main public space.

History

The Romans built a military camp here in the first century BC, and in 98 Nijmegen became the first of two settlements in today's Netherlands to receive Roman city rights; in 104 Emperor Trajan renamed it Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum. Charlemagne kept his palace here in 777, Emperor Henry VI was born here in 1165, and in 1230 his son Frederick II granted Nijmegen city rights (Wikipedia, Nijmegen).

What to look for

• A Roman foundation - market rights around AD 100, the oldest city claim.
• The Valkhof - Charlemagne's palace hill with a sixteen-sided chapel of about 1030.
• A new river channel - the Waal given a second course and an island through the city.
• A postwar centre - rebuilt after the 1944 bombing and the fighting that followed.

When to go

April to October; July for the Vierdaagse walking event. Two days.

Good to know

Much of the centre is postwar rebuilding. The Vierdaagse in July fills the city completely for a week. Museums close on Mondays. The river park floods in high water, by design.

Nearby

Millingerwaard is east; Arnhem is north.

Key facts