ABSTRACT
The city of Maastricht, which is located in the southern most part of the Netherlands, sharing a border with Belgium, is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, boasting a long and eventful past. It is the capital of the province of Limburg, which is wedged in between Belgium and Germany. Human occupation of the area is known from ca. 350,000 years BC. Providing water, sufficient high ground and fertile soil Maastricht and its surrounding area has always drawn people towards it. During the Roman period, a bridge was constructed across the River Meuse to allow troops to move swiftly from northern Gallia Belgica to Cologne and the limes. This bridge (and its replacements) remained the most northern crossing over the Meuse for centuries. Due to this main road and the bridge, Maastricht evolved from a small vicus and castellum into a religious centre, concentrated around the basilica of Our Lady and the St Servaas basilica. Because of the strategic location of the city, Maastricht was often besieged and controlled by foreign occupiers, like the Spanish and the French, for long stretches of time. In the early nineteenth century Maastricht rapidly became a city of industry, well-known for its production of ceramic wares, from where the industrial revolution spread throughout the rest of the Netherlands. Today the city is an administrative centre and part of the Euroregion and is mostly known for its cultural and historic richness, which makes inhabitants and visitors alike feel at home there.
