There is nothing useful on this web site.
Even though the internet is the source of all truth, the only truth here is that everything else is a lie.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.- Oscar Wilde
We went to Maastricht, a city located in a teardrop shaped piece land surrounded by Belgium and Germany, but belonging to the Netherlands. It is in the province of Limburg and is the deep south of the Netherlands. They speak dutch there, but it sounds kind of funny. Maastricht sits very near the Belgium border.
It is one of the oldest occupied areas in the Netherlands, having been occupied by the Dutch, the Romans, the Dutch, assorted kings, conquerers and churches, the Dutch, Napoleon, the Dutch, Germans, and of course, the Dutch. It may be worse. Like the repair bill for an old car or most of history, this is just a rough estimate.
It became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 after being liberated from Napoleon by the Prussians and the Russians. In 1839 another treaty was signed that divided the area known as Limburg between Belgium and The Netherlands.
This treaty created the national borders that exist today, so now both Belgium and The Netherlands have provinces called Limburg that butt up against each other with a border that does not follow the usual geographical boundaries, like say, a river. The new borders also made it very convenient for a subsequent Nazi occupation.
What was this treaty called, you ask? Was it the Treaty of Maastricht?
Ha ha - nee nee, good question though! (stupid tourist) This was the Treaty of London, and thereafter, the name United Kingdom of The Netherlands was dropped in favour of simply "The Netherlands".
This was a good thing. Can you imagine having 2 United Kingdom's to deal with? One is enough. Sorry - I digress.
Maastricht sits near the Belgium border, only a cannonball flight away. At the south end of the city is an important hill. Because of their rarity, almost all hills in the Netherlands are important. This particular hill soars to nearly 100 meters! On top of the hill is Fort Saint Pieter.
On Google Earth, it kind of looks like a kiddy version of the Pentagon. It is on the top of the hill but is built into the ground to make it as artillery proof as possible.
The perimeter of the pentagon is surrounded by a trench. The walls of the fort rising from the trench are of layered brick construction about a meter thick and enclose tunnels lined with clever 3-way 120° gun portals aimed into the trenches. Kinda of like the modern day design of an American embassy. Oops - I digress again.
It would have been very foolish for any soldier to attempt cross the trench and breech the walls, in daylight, moonlight, even starlight, especially if they were wearing white gloves. Silly French soldiers.
The top of the fort has more layered brick construction to accomodate the real big guns.
Then everything was covered with another protective layer of earth.
Napoleon Bonaparte, a master of artillery tactics, had a real challenge with Fort Saint Pieter. He did not have the om-pa-pa at the time to pound his way in, and had limited success at using the extensive tunnel network below the fort to infiltrate. (more on that later).
This is the history of Maastricht. The city is defined by the fortifications surrounding the old town, and the steep pitched roofs of the narrow homes with their massive attics to store provisions, just in case.
We stopped in at the Stadhuis or City Hall. It is open to the public and worth a visit for the beautiful stained glass artwork and exquisite tapestries.
Maastricht also has some beautiful 10th and 11th century twin spire churches, built in the Romanesque style.
The Basilica of Saint Servatius honours the first bishop of Maastricht, considered one of the most prominent scholars of the Christian faith.
He died in 384 AD and his remains and relics are the sanctuary of this church. A traditional procession through the old town is still held every 7 years.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk dates back to 1000 AD. It's a large Romanesque style church with one of the most unique and imposing facades of any church we have seen.
It was also open to the public the day we walked by. It's very dark inside, and since I refuse to flash churches, there are no interior pictures to show.
We stayed at the Hotel DuCasque and we were lucky enough to get Room 470, which is the only room in the hotel with an outdoor balcony. It overlooks the town square and offers a 180° panorma of the town square.
I once held the view that medieval churches represented a vast waste of resources. These monuments did little to serve the people of the time, and were built more to satisfy egos than purpose. They served as a metaphor for religion today.
In Maastricht, I changed my mind. I can do that, right?
Churches are the most magnificent buildings of the time, and there are many, many of them throughout Europe, a few maintained in their original glory.
But most are hardly used now. They are ornaments for the most part, banquet halls and book stores.
But it does not matter who the players were at the time or what they did. These churches were conceived, financed, engineered, and built by a community that worked well together, and possessed a collective will that was able to transcend beyond what would be expected. That is what is so remarkable.
Every medieval church, and even some of the castles, are a monument to the community spirit, the collective will, the common belief, and the brilliant artistic and engineering achievements that can result from a such a communion. It can be done. It shall be done.
So the office towers of today now replace my missing metaphor. Office towers are the new churches.
Thankfully, no one today would build a church or fortress today that is higher than the Dom Cathedral is now. Any office tower built today would have to be much higher than the Dom Cathedral to even make the top 100 office towers in the world.
So there you go. Alstublijft!Office towers are quite secular buildings and much more accessible to all of us than their historical counterparts. Many even have nice restaurants on top. I guess we have evolved for the better.
Sorry to get boring. Let's talk about the cool stuff. How did they do that?
The most interesting part of Maastricht is underneath. There is a layer of sedimentary rock below the town called marl.
The marl below the town is very moist (25% water) and soft. Below ground, when fresh, it can be carved with a butter knife. They used to cut bricks of it with hand saws.
It has been mined since Roman times. It's odd because this is a mine, not a quarry. The rock was 'harvested' by digging a network of tunnels below the town. Today, there is a regular quarry that operates to the south of the fort.
Once above ground and exposed to dry air, over a period of two years or so, the rock hardens. Cut and carved bricks can then be used in construction. It is a cream white in color when harvested but darkens to a sandstone brown as it ages.
Some of the great cathedrals of Europe have been built with this rock, including the Dom Cathedral in Cologne, Germany.
The quarry is now an abandoned network of tunnels below the town. They claim there are some 20,000 passages and 200 kilometers of tunnels!
People have lived in the caves, but only when hiding themselves, their art, possessions and/or cattle, from the Nazi's, Napoleon, or whatever other occupier or tax collector happened to be in town at the time. The caves are amazing. All kinds of cave art can be found.
We did a tour with a group using Coleman lanterns for light.
Here are some of the pictures we took.
This picture has a story. We're in the caves on this guided tour that is spoken is only in dutch. I can't understand what the guide is talking about so I start wandering down various connecting passages. I don't wander far because it's very, very dark and all I have is my camera for light.
I think to myself, "something could be looking at me and I wouldn't know". So on a whim I turn on the camera, and the flash, and take a picture of the utter darkness.
I did not see anything in the viewfinder when the flash went off, but this is what showed up when I looked at the picture later.
The tour of the tunnels was the highlight of our trip to Maastricht.
We also did a tour immediately after of Fort Saint Pieter. It's a great tour too, but it ended up being way too many tunnels for one day. We recommend doing each tour on a different day.
The last picture is a tour bus that was leaving the train station just after we arrived in Maastricht. I am not making this up.
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