The City of Maastricht
Maastricht is a small university city located at the southern edge of the Netherlands.
Located in the most southern of the twelve provinces in the Netherlands, named Limburg. Maastricht is also the capital of the province. The municipality internationally borders Belgium. Maastricht only 60 square kilometers in size, with a total of five districts, and has approximately 121,501 inhabitants living there.
Why should you visit Maastricht?
In Maastricht it is easy to feel like you’re not even in the Netherlands anymore, but also not in Belgium. This could be because Limburger has a distinctive accent when they speak Dutch or especially in their Limburgish dialects.
Maastricht isn’t like any of your typical Dutch city, the architecture and structure of the city give you a totally different aspect of the Netherlands with its a cobbled old town/city center and Gothic-style Sint Janskerk. This is also because Maastricht is part of the Most Ancient European Towns network and also ranks as the city with the second highest national heritage buildings in the Netherlands, with a total of 1667.
During the holidays, giving Maastricht a visit is surely worth it when they have their annual Christmas Market.
Why should you study in Maastricht?
Maastricht is a relatively small municipality and city, but, it is just right in its size. About one-tenth of the inhabitants are also students, and according to Maastricht University, another twenty percent are international students!
Speaking of international, Maastricht is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion which then adds to every other person in Maastricht could probably speak Dutch, German and French fluently, isn’t that wonderful?
There are two major universities within the city, those being Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and Maastricht University. Both schools offer various Bachelor and Master degree programs. As small as Maastricht may appear to be, finding a place to study should never be one of your worries as The Library at Maastricht University has about 2000 learning spaces, there is also a spot on campus called the Bonnefanten Learning Spaces which are also former military barracks, this would be a perfect spot for any history lovers.
For student travel bugs, it could be imagined that this would be a wonderful city to live in because it internationally borders Belgium and Germany. This makes it feasible to travel to the two other countries within a nick of time. A train journey from Maastricht to Antwerp only takes approximately two hours and the retour ticket would cost you less than twenty euros! This is probably every student commuter’s dream! Some of the other closest international cities to Maastricht are; Aachen, Liege, Eupen, and Hasselt.
Interesting facts about Maastricht...
Maastricht is considered to be the oldest city in the Netherlands because Maastricht was once part of the Spanish reign for over fifty years going from 1579 up until 1632;
Maastricht has hidden underground tunnels that go back to the Roman Empire. it is a labyrinth of more than 20000 tunnels;
The European Union was founded in Maastricht in 1992;
Maastricht has a gothic church that is now turned into a library, also known as the Dominicanen Kerk. Some even call is the most beautiful bookstore in the world.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blogpost are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of Phryme Magazine.