Historic architecture in Maastricht

At the Star of the Sea, or in full the Basilica of Our Lady Star of the Sea, time seems to have stood still for a thousand years. On the Onze Lieve Vrouwe square, stand as close as you can to the façade of the basilica and look up. Like an indestructible rock face, the building towers above you. Not surprisingly, remains of a Roman defensive fort have been reused in the wall. Bear in mind that most of the windows are later additions; the already dark church was once lit only by flickering candles. Now look down again: the large grey stone blocks at the corners are probably from the Roman temple the church was built on top of. Via Graanmarkt and Stokstraat, you get to the back of the church. The 12th-century east facade is decorated with beautifully carved capitals. The two spires have unusual marlstone roofs. The towers once served as storage places for important papers, such as property deeds and wills. To prevent fire, no wooden beams were used in the roof construction.

As early as the 6th century, a pilgrimage site at the tomb of the holy bishop Saint Servatius was written about. What once began as a simple wooden chapel in the field grew over the years into a majestic building complex. The names of the builders who tinkered with the basilica over the past 15 (!) centuries sound like characters from a fairy tale: Monulphus, Gondulphus, Geldulfus and Humbertus. They added towers and gates, built a crypt and eventually demolished the whole church again. Only to put an even bigger church in its place. The base of the current church is still Romanesque, with heavy walls and small windows that let in limited daylight. However, much of that medieval atmosphere is of later date. Architect Pierre Cuypers restored St Servatius between 1870 and 1890, at which time he removed many of the decorations from the 17th and 18th centuries and also restored the towers to their medieval appearance.

In 1648, the Eighty Years' War ended, and Maastricht became a Dutch city. That the Maastricht city council approached the architect Pieter Post a few years later to build a new city hall seems no coincidence. Pieter Post had mainly made a name for himself with palaces for the Orange-Nassau family, in which he combined symmetry with restrained ornamentation. Post designed a stately city palace for Maastricht, which is still impressive to behold. Its location in the middle of the market square and the austere Dutch-classical style made one thing clear: from now on, the Dutch would rule here. To build in the middle of the market square, a number of medieval buildings had to be demolished. However, the bishop of Liège refused to sell some of his properties. To Pieter Post's frustration, this blocked his pursuit of perfect symmetry: it now proved impossible to build the Town Hall exactly in the middle of the market square.

According to tradition, the two steps leading to the main entrance are said to have to do with Maastricht's political history. For centuries, the city was governed by a so-called bicommunal system, in which 'two lords', the bishop of Liège and the duke of Brabant, shared power over Maastricht. Would they each have been given their own staircase, as a tribute? Given the bishop's unhelpful attitude during construction, that seems doubtful. Pieter Post presumably wanted to salvage something from his idea of 'perfect symmetry'.