Department
Maastricht
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About Maastricht
Maastricht is the provincial capital and most Burgundian city in the
Netherlands, a sophisticated, open-minded border town, far removed in
spirit from the regimented northern provinces. Aficionados of the south
consider Maastricht the country's most user-friendly city, combining
quality of life with standard of living in a way northerners haven't
quite got the hang of yet. In his satirical novel, In Nederland, Cees
Nooteboom decries the north as "an orderly human garden" and praises
the south as a land of untamed cave-dwellers leading freer lives.
Of all the southern towns, Maastricht has the least trammelled spirit,
and as the Netherlands' oldest city, it has been open to foreign influence
from Roman traders, Charlemagne's soldiers and Burgundian merchants. The
result of such a cosmopolitan history is no bland internationalism, but a
relaxed society confident of its traditions and its dialect, which, unlike
many parts of the Netherlands, Maastricht has retained. So distinctive is
it that locals half-jokingly claim not to speak Dutch. Before the euro the
city accepted three currencies, reflecting its position in the important
economic triangle delineated by Maastricht, Aachen and Liège. Germans cross
the border for art exhibitions; Belgian students for the nightlife and
northern Dutch for the hilly countryside and a chance to release their
Calvinistic inhibitions.
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