Roermond

Roermond has been a bishop's seat since 1559 and its landmark is older: the Munsterkerk, built around 1220 as the church of a Cistercian abbey, a late Romanesque building on a Greek cross plan with a trefoil east end and two western towers, holding the tomb of Gerard III of Guelders and his wife Margaretha, a thirteenth-century double effigy of high quality. Pierre Cuypers was born in Roermond in 1827, ran his workshop here, and rebuilt the Munsterkerk in the 1860s in a manner that added a good deal - his own house and studio survive, and he is buried in the town. He went on to build the Rijksmuseum and Amsterdam Centraal, so a great deal of what looks characteristically Dutch nineteenth-century came out of this workshop. The town also has a very large designer outlet on the edge, which brings most of its current visitors.

What you actually see

• The Munsterkerk of about 1220 - late Romanesque on a Greek cross plan with a trefoil end.
• A thirteenth-century double tomb - Gerard III and Margaretha of Guelders.
• Cuypers's town - born, worked and buried here, with his house and studio surviving.
• A designer outlet - the large retail centre that draws most current visitors.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

Churches close during services and keep limited visiting hours. The outlet centre dominates the town's traffic at weekends. Cuypers's nineteenth-century additions to the Munsterkerk are substantial.

Nearby

The Maasplassen are around the town; De Meinweg is east.