for: Maastricht Treaty

Maastricht (Dutch commonly (and local pronunciation) IPA2: maːstʀɪçt sometimes IPA2: maːstʁɪχt; Limburgish (incl. Maastrichtian variant): Mestreech IPA2: məˈstʀeːç; French (archaic): Maëstricht) is a city and a municipality in the Dutch province of Limburg, of which it is the capital. The city is situated on both sides of the Meuse river (Dutch: Maas) in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, near the Belgian and German borders. The city is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, a Euregio whose other main cities include Aachen, Germany and Hasselt and Liège in respectively Dutch-speaking and French-speaking Belgium.

Nowadays, Maastricht is widely known as a centre of tradition, history and culture, and popular with tourists for shopping and recreation. It is the location for various educational, with some partial to fully anglophone, establishments including the Maastricht University (including the University College Maastricht), the Maastricht School of Management, parts of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (including the Maastricht Conservatory, Academy of Dramatic Arts Maastricht and Hotelschool Maastricht) and starting August 2009 a United World College. Consequently the city has a large international student population.

Etymology

Its name is derived from Latin Trajectum ad Mosam or Mosae Trajectum, meaning "Mosa-crossing", and refers to the bridge over the Meuse river built by the Romans during the reign of Augustus Caesar.

"Oldest city of the Netherlands" dispute

There is some discussion as to whether Maastricht is the oldest city of the Netherlands: By some Nijmegen is considered to be the oldest mainly because it was the first settlement in the Netherlands to receive Roman city rights. Maastricht never received Roman city rights but as a settlement it may be considerably older.

The Maastricht claim is furthermore based on the city's unbroken chain of habitation since Roman times. A large number of archeological finds confirms this. Nijmegen has an embarrassing gap in its history: There is practically no evidence of habitation in the early Middle Ages.

History

Paleolithic remains have been found to the west of Maastricht, between 8,000 and 25,000 years old. Celts lived here at least 500 years before the Romans came, at a spot where the river Meuse was shallow and therefore easy to cross. The Romans later built a bridge and a large road to connect the capitals of the Nervians and Tungri, Bavay and Tongeren, with the capital of the Ubians, Cologne.

Saint Servatius was the first bishop of the Netherlands. His tomb, in the crypt at the Basilica of Saint Servatius, is a favoured place of pilgrimage: Pope John Paul II visited it in 1985. The golden gilt shrine containing some of the saint's relics is carried around the town every seven years. The city remained an early Christian bishopric until it lost this position to nearby Liège in the 8th century.