Maastricht - The City

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The City

Maastricht

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Europe Netherlands Maastricht The City

Overview

The City The guide was updated: 2024-09-15

COMPACT & CONTACT
You will feel right at home in Maastricht. You can get to know the very compact city centre very quickly, and you'll be greeted warmly everywhere you go. The highlights are all within walking distance, and it's hard to lose your way on the charming, mostly car-free, streets. But if you ever do, there's always someone willing to point you in the right direction.

THE 'MESTREECHTER GEIS'
Charm, playfulness, a healthy dose of humour, and a zest for life: these are the ingredients of the Maastricht local character. This character has been immortalized by the artist Mari Andriessen in the bronze statue Mestreechter Geis, on the square near Stokstraat.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE
The whole of the Maastricht city centre has been declared a protected national monument. In the historic buildings and elegant houses, you will find a rich variety of architectural styles from different ages – from the early Roman period to the Maastricht Renaissance. Experience the seamless transition from stately, old façades to contemporary architecture and the historic buildings of the future.

IT’S ALL IN THE MIX
That intriguing blend of past and present is not only seen in the architecture, but definitely carries through into the city's cultural offerings as well. Colourful, traditional, and uniquely Maastricht, but also mysterious, undiscovered, challenging, and sophisticated. From underground cultural treasures and the city's signature bell towers to energetic and exciting festivals, exhibitions, and breathtaking performances – Maastricht is bursting with activities year-round, with a four-season event calendar featuring unique and distinct cultural happenings for every season.

CITY OF FASHION AND SHOPPING
Designer boutiques and major labels are found in abundance, punctuated by genuine one-of-a-kind shops with unique must-have fashion, lifestyle, and design items and accessories. All this only adds to the rich setting of the historic city centre. The heart of the city is rightly legendary among fashion-lovers and shopaholics, who can shop to their hearts' content here, seven days a week.

Wyck

Wyck

Wyck has often been described as the up-and-coming part of Maastricht. Even though it’s still a dynamic area in development, it’s already seen a real transformation from ten years ago. Today, it’s hard to imagine that there was a time that this side of the Meuse was dismissed as ‘outside Maastricht,’ and the people of Wyck were considered bumpkins. But this history has also had a defining impact, and made Wyck into the unique urban borough that it is. The many contemporary and exclusive shops, hotels, restaurants, and creative enterprises that have come here in recent years are a perfect fit with the long-standing local boutiques, fine food shops, and the locals themselves. That’s what makes Wyck one of the best places in Maastricht to live, work, and shop. On weekdays Wyck is bustling with business from the train station to the river, and on weekends it is just as jumping, with the tourists and day visitors tarrying here to ‘warm up’ for a day out on the town. Today, it’s rightly said that you haven’t seen Maastricht until you’ve seen Wyck!

Céramique

Céramique

In the Céramique district, you still feel the industrial past, even though you’re standing in the newest and most modern part of the city. It’s the kind of place where you look up and keep looking, to take in the impressive architecture, even as the ground around you buzzes with culture and activity. Céramique arose in the early 1990s on the site of ‘Société Céramique,’ a ceramics factory that operated from 1850 to 1985, best known for its tableware. When the factory was offered for sale to the municipality in the late 1980s, the idea to redevelop the area as a quality residential and commercial district quickly emerged, and Government Architect Jo Coenen was engaged to develop a master plan. One of his fundamental premises was to bring something of a Mediterranean feel to this part of the city. To achieve this, he brought in luminary architects from southern Europe for the design of the various residential and business complexes. The result is a total package of architectural high point after high point, like Mario Botta’s ‘La Fortezza,’ Alvaro Siza’s ‘Tower of Siza,’ and perhaps the crowning glory, Aldo Rossi’s Bonnefanten Museum. But despite all the forward-looking architecture, the connection to the past remains, in the street names, remnants of older buildings and tableware that turn up unexpectedly, and the exhibitions in the Bonnefanten Museum and Centre Céramique. Each and every one is a golden thread of history interwoven into the fabric of today.

City Centre

City Centre

It’s all here, whether you go for the big names or those cute little boutiques you find nowhere else. And whether you prefer an upmarket department store or a covered shopping centre for your whole new wardrobe, or enjoy running from shop to shop in search of that one perfect item. Here in the Maastricht city centre, there’s something for every shopaholic, young or old, boy or girl. Comb the Grote Staat and be dazzled by all the known and lesser-known chains you find here. Take a peek at the shopping centre Entre Deux, worth a visit for its architecture alone, and for the huge shops for famous labels you’ll find here. There are still a few surprises for you in store at the shopping centre Mosae Forum, just next to the Markt. And don’t overlook the basement floor, where you’ll find some hidden gems (of the edible kind!). But it’s not all fashion, beauty, and lifestyle; there’s also a special place for books, in the amazing bookshop in the medieval Dominican church, a highlight of the city centre not to be missed. Need a breather? When you’re ready to take a break from your shopping adventure, you’ll be pleased to find that the amazing array of shops is interspersed with pubs, cafés, and charming restaurants.

Jeker Quarter

Jeker Quarter

Those who live and work here say that you don’t really need to explain where the Jeker quarter is: Once you’re there, you’ll know. This is where the locals stroll the streets at their leisure, students read in the park, and you can spend a whole Sunday on a café terrace, a wisp of jazz music in the air in the background, and never get bored. The Jeker quarter is nestled between the old city walls and centuries-old houses, bordered by the green of the city park. Although people have lived here for centuries, no one has ever explored it all. Enterprise is deeply rooted in the genes of this community: A history full of crafts and trades has left its marks, and forged the unique, authentic, innovative and creative atmosphere you feel here today. And right through the middle of it, that impudent little river, the Jeker, flows brazenly on. The quaint streets, stately homes, and idyllic parks have everything to make history come alive, while the rich student life, mix of young and old, culinary highlights, and abundant art and culture pull you back to the present.

Stokstraat Quarter

Stokstraat Quarter

The collection of streets between the city centre and the Jeker quarter is known as the Stokstraat quarter. It’s that historic corner of the city between two statues, ‘De Mestreechter Geis’ and ‘Slevrouwe’. All of these streets ultimately lead to the ever-charming, intimate and romantic Onze Lieve Vrouweplein. In this part of the city, you can find the warmth and charm of a classic Maastricht pub on virtually every corner. The quarter takes its name from what may be the city’s most famous (or infamous) street. Today, Stokstraat is known as the place for the most exclusive and luxury shops in the Netherlands, but it was not always so. If there’s any street that has seen its fortunes turn over the years, it’s this one. In the Middle Ages, its reputation was dubious thanks to its many bathhouse-brothels; later, the street enjoyed a renaissance with many reputable merchants established in it, until, as the Industrial Revolution took hold and the city centre became overpopulated with wave after wave of migrants from the countryside, the street became synonymous with grinding poverty. Living conditions here became so dire that there was even talk of demolishing the entire street. The Stokstraat quarter of today is the result of a dramatic redevelopment between 1950 and 1973, which succeeded in preserving its historic character but transforming it into a fashionable address for living, shopping, and dining.

Sphinx and Bassin

Sphinx and Bassin

‘This is where the cultural, creative, and enterprising urban district Sphinx will arise.’ So reads the ambition behind the plans for the development of the Sphinx area. Plans focus on the place where Maastricht’s industrial revolution began. It was here that Petrus Regout built his ‘Sphinx Factory,’ the start of what grew into an enormous industry, producing bathroom fixtures, tiles, and the products that made Maastricht great. The factory operated until 2006, and since then efforts have been under way to redevelop this area as a district that fits in with the city, but as something Maastricht does not already have. That’s why this district is being designed to attract creative types, young residents, national and international students, and expatriates. It will be internationally oriented, with room for flexible space and temporary functions. Where this area is going is becoming clearer and clearer, in things like the arrival of the pop music stage in a former sawmill, and the newly opened Brandweer(kantine), with workspaces and meeting places for creative entrepreneurs. But not everything in this part of the city is new and different. The historic and picturesque river harbour ‘t Bassin, adjacent to the Sphinx area, makes a perfect buffer for the transition from the more familiar and better known Maastricht to this new part of town.

Vrijthof

Vrijthof

You would almost miss them. Almost. Because as soon as you pass the entryway to the St. Servaas Basilica, you’ll figure out that it’s worth walking on. You’ll see for yourself that Maastricht doesn’t end at the Vrijthof. Sometimes you just have to take those few extra steps. That’s when Maastricht will surprise you with just how surprising the city centre really is. The Vrijthof has a number of little streets leading into it from all directions. They include Brusselsestraat, Grote Gracht, and De Kommel. Unlike the more idyllic boulevards in most of the rest of the city, these streets evoke a feeling of the urban, the artistic, the unknown. Here, students and locals come and go: artists, designers, professionals. It’s an area that’s moving fast: new shops, start-ups, young businesses, surprising concepts. Yet at the same time, it’s bursting with historic buildings, and is still very much a place where locals want to live. In truth, you can’t really describe the streets around the Vrijthof in a few words. It’s where local, university, business, authentic, forward-looking, and surprising Maastricht all come together.

St. Pieter

St. Pieter

You’ll feel like you’ve crossed the border, but you’re not quite there yet. Of course, you’re aware that Maastricht’s central location in the Euregio means you can be in Belgium very quickly. But you don’t really feel it until you see how the city, and the countryside around it, is layered with a unique mix of foreign influences. With the Sint Pietersberg hill, the historic caves, the vineyards, Fort Sint Pieter, and Château Neercanne as backdrop, this part of the city has everything you need to capture that holiday feeling. Sint Pieter was its own municipality until 1920. This part of the city was always outside the city walls (and so had it the toughest in times of war). Then, it was mainly farmers who lived here; now, it’s mostly families, epicureans, and a few descendants of the inhabitants of that old Sint Pieter. Today, Sint Pieter is Maastricht’s most popular residential district, not just for its beautiful houses but because of its ideal location between city and green. And it still feels like its own town, with its own social life, and charm, even though it’s just a stone’s throw away from the city park. In fact, it has the best of both worlds: village and city. Nature and culture.

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