Cataloging the Charms of Maastricht

Come to this medieval Dutch city where the modern European currency, the euro, was born in 1992, and you can have breakfast in Holland, eat lunch in Germany and sit down to dinner in Belgium. Maastricht’s location in the southern Dutch province of Limburg, only a few short miles from the now easily crossed borders of these three nations, makes it a convenient jumping-off spot for day trips.

But before you jump, take a closer look at Maastricht. For a city of only 120,000 inhabitants, it is surprisingly cosmopolitan, with good restaurants, shops and galleries. What’s more, it has a charming medieval core, still partly enclosed by centuries-old defensive walls.

My wife, Liet, and I came to Maastricht in March to attend the annual European Fine Arts Fair, a weeklong exhibition and sale that attracts connoisseurs, curators and collectors from around the world.

Almost 200 art and antiques dealers were set up in faux shops on the vast convention center floor. Within a few hours of the opening, we began spotting red dots next to items signifying “sold.” We wondered at the number of people ready, willing and able to pay tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases millions, for ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman treasures, 17th century Dutch masterworks, 18th century French furniture and 20th century art by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele.

The show’s star was a 1632 Rembrandt, an oval portrait of a 62-year-old woman in a fur-trimmed black dress with a broad white collar that illuminated her features. The price? $35.6 million.

Liet and I were not the least bit put off by the fact that we could afford only the price of admission ($35 for two), which included the exquisitely produced 534-page catalog. We spent almost three days at the fair, gawking, enthralled to be in the equivalent of a grand museum, but one in which everything is for sale. When we began to feel sated on the riches of the exhibitions, we gave ourselves over to Maastricht.

The city was founded 2,000 years ago by the Romans. Because of its advantageous position at a ford in the Maas River, it grew rich on trade; but as a strategic crossing point for armies, it also became a prize fought over for centuries. As a souvenir of those trying years, it still has underground fortifications carved from the soft limestone, as well as the remnants of the several thick walls that once encircled it.

Its travails continued right up into the 20th century when the Germans occupied Holland during World War II, but remarkably, the city was spared the destruction visited on urban centers elsewhere in Holland and in nearby Belgium. In 1944 Maastricht became the first Dutch city to be freed by American troops.

We began our explorations of the town at the official tourist office (VVV), in a converted courthouse dating to the 15th century. The exterior is worth a close look, with its beautiful stone facade, double staircase leading up to the second-story entrance and tall saddle roof surmounted by a delicate tower. Such a roof, so characteristic of the Maastricht skyline, was deliberately pitched at a sharp angle to allow more storage space in the attic, a precaution against enemy sieges. The building’s interior has many original features, including timbered ceilings and enormous fireplaces.

At the VVV we hired a cheerful, English-speaking guide who took us on a walking tour of the old city. We ambled down cozy narrow lanes to the Stokstraat, a newly restored-to-chic neighborhood of 17th and 18th century houses and smart specialty shops.

Part of the pleasure of walking in Maastricht is a lack of automobile traffic; many squares and streets have been given over to pedestrians, and this enhances their old-fashioned feel.

Soon we came to a terrace overlooking the Maas that once formed part of a city wall. Among the many foreigners who died trying to breach it was the famed musketeer D’Artagnan.

Walking the rampart’s length, we arrived at the twin-towered Helpoort, one of the gates in the original city wall, put up in 1299. Ahead of us stood another defensive tower, the Father Vinck, rising from a small but delightful park beside the narrow, noisily rushing Jeker River, which cuts right through town. Further enhancing the almost bucolic atmosphere was a 350-year-old nunnery, a long, low, red-brick building with red and white shutters, today the home of a couple of lucky artists.

Strolling by another arched section of the ubiquitous wall, we took a turn into a narrow street and were back in the heart of the old city, with more than one Gothic building to prove it. The eye-catcher is the 11th century Basilica of Our Dear Lady, whose tall stone facade and enormous round towers give it a look more akin to a fortress than a house of God. The church was built with few windows. We shivered in the dark, cold, damp interior, with the bit of wan light illuminating islands of sheen in the polished black stone floor. Stepping out into a large square set with cafe tables and wicker chairs in anticipation of spring, we felt our spirits lift as we shook off the clammy embrace of the Middle Ages.

Maastricht is a city of squares large and small, giving its citizens plenty of breathing room. Our tour ended up on the largest, the Vrijthof, a vast, dramatic space dominated by the dark red spire of the Gothic St. Jan’s, the landmark Protestant church, and the Romanesque apse and twin towers of the massive St. Servatius Catholic basilica, the core of which dates to the year 1000.

We took a look inside St. Servatius--Servaas in Dutch--and its treasury, in which sits a large gold and jeweled casket, one of the great treasures of the Middle Ages. Outside, in the courtyard of the cloister, is Grandma, the big bronze bell that sounded the alarm in times of strife.

With time running out, we now had to choose between the 16th century Spanish Government House--a museum facing the square, with an outstanding collection of 17th and 18th century paintings, furniture, sculpture, glass and silver--and an art gallery opposite it.

We chose the gallery, our curiosity piqued by the knowledge that it is owned by Robert Noortman, the man who had the $35.6-million Rembrandt for sale at the fair. We were not disappointed. The gallery occupies an old patrician home and is hung throughout with glorious examples of 17th century Dutch painting, much as it might have been in an earlier time. Not the least of its attractions was another Rembrandt, an oval portrait of a man, a few million dollars cheaper than its female counterpart.

Maastricht’s emergence as a popular city for international congresses ensures a gold standard for its restaurants and hotels. Haute cuisine can be readily found in many of the more elegant establishments, but so can some of the down-to-earth treats of the area, such as Limburgse flan (fruit pie with lattice topping), apple dumplings, gingerbread and Rommedoeke, the true Limburger cheese.

To be near the fair, we stayed first at the Hotel Bergere in the heart of town. Then, to spread our wings a little, we moved to the luxurious Chateau St. Gerlach in a suburb of Maastricht.

The Bergere calls itself a “design hotel,” and we could see why: The rooms, lobby, bar and dining areas are decorated with classics of contemporary European furniture.

The St. Gerlach is the antithesis of the Bergere, a place redolent of history and antique charm. Not surprisingly, it draws an elegant but easygoing clientele.

Founded on an estate dating to 1201, the hotel complex long functioned as a monastery and preserves to this day a lovely, light-filled Baroque church, complete with ceiling and wall frescoes and the tomb of the 12th century monk who gave the complex its name. Just next door is the 18th century chateau where the four gracious rooms of Les Trois Corbeaux restaurant are located, and behind it we found an indoor spa and swimming pool.

The hotel proper, with 58 rooms and suites, is housed in another imposing 18th century edifice with double wings, around which run the St. Gerlach’s formal gardens. Our comfortable room, under the roof of one wing, had all the old timbers exposed.

Staying at the St. Gerlach, we soon realized that the rolling countryside around Maastricht must also count as one of the reasons to visit this corner of the Netherlands. We enjoyed meandering through it in our rented car, much taken with its big, peaceful vistas, some of which seemed familiar from the early northern European paintings we had seen in Noortman’s gallery and at the art and antiques fair. The Dutch wryly refer to this hilly landscape as Holland’s Alps and flock here on summer vacation.

Of the Americans who do venture beyond Maastricht, many have a somber destination in mind. Just six miles east of the city, atop a broad hill, is the only U.S. World War II cemetery in the Netherlands. Here 8,302 young men and women lie buried, and we made a point of visiting it.

As we walked toward a tower of remembrance and the graves behind it, we could see carved into the long marble walls to either side the names of 1,723 soldiers whose remains never were found or properly identified. Ahead of us fanned out 8,302 graves.

We spent a half-hour alone in the cemetery roaming up and down the avenues of marble stones carved with crosses and stars of David, touching them, saying the names aloud.

Before leaving, we stopped by the visitors center, where a young Dutchman was on hand to answer our questions. I wanted to know who leaves bouquets. The Dutch do mostly, he said. They have adopted individual graves, and, more than 50 years after the war, they continue to bring flowers as a way of saying thanks.

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Guidebook: Mastering Maastricht

* Getting there: KLM has nonstop service from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. Connecting service (one plane change) is available on Continental, United, Delta, Northwest, Lufthansa and US Airways. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $907. KLM flies from Amsterdam to Maastricht; round-trip fare starts at $82.

* Where to stay: Hotel Bergere, Stationstraat 40, 6221 BR, Maastricht; tele-phone 011-31-43-328-2525, fax 011-31-43-328-2526, Internet https://www.bergere.nl. Doubles $90 to $118.

Chateau St. Gerlach, 6301 KK Bad Valkenburg; tel. 011-31-43-608-8888, fax 011-31-43-604-2883, https://www.stgerlach.com. Doubles $180 to $278.

* Where to eat: Fines Claires, Corversplein 9, 6221 EZ; local tel. 43-325-2525. Contemporary.

Three-course menu, $36; six-course, $56.

Les Trois Corbeaux, Chateau St. Gerlach (see above). Three-course dinner, $58.

Restaurant Chateau Neercanne, Cannerweg 800, 6213 ND, Maastricht; tel. 43-325-1359. Dinner in this former castle is $50 to $65.

* For more information: VVV Tourist Office, Het Dinghuis, Kleine Straat 1, 6211 ED Maastricht. Tel./fax 011-31-43-325-2121; https://www.visitmaastricht.nl. VVV hotel reservations: tel. 011-31-43-321-7878.