Nijmegen (in Nijmegen: Nimwèège, German: Nimwegen, Latin:
Noviomagus, French: Nimègue, Spanish and Italian: Nimega) is a city
and municipality in the Dutch province of Gelderland, close to the
border with Germany. The municipality has 176,669 inhabitants (1
August 2020) and is the largest city in Gelderland in terms of
population and also the tenth in the Netherlands.
The city is
largely located on the southern bank of the Waal, at the foot of a
moraine. The so-called Waalspring is located north of the river, an
area in which a new-build part of the village of Lent and a large
new-build plan to the south of the Overbetuwe village of Oosterhout
are located. Together with Arnhem, Wijchen and 17 other
municipalities in the area, Nijmegen forms the Arnhem Nijmegen City
Region (SRAN, formerly KAN) and is affiliated with the Euregio
Rhine-Waal partnership. Nijmegen has traditionally been part of the
Rijk van Nijmegen, along with several other municipalities in the
area, such as Wijchen, Beuningen and Berg en Dal.
Nijmegen
has a long history that goes back more than 2000 years. As Ulpia
Noviomagus Batavorum, it got 100 market rights around the year.
Nijmegen became a free imperial city in 1230 and a Hanseatic city in
1402. After Nijmegen once housed a Quarterly Academy between 1655
and 1679, the city has been a university town since the arrival of
the Catholic University (now Radboud University) in 1923.
The Latin term Noviomagus can be traced back to the Celtic words magos ('plain' or 'market') and novio ('new'). The Romans then Latinized this to Noviomagus. She used this as a toponym to indicate different cities. Nijmegen was called Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum. In Charlemagne's time the city was called Numaga, which over time changed into Nieumeghen ('Nieuw-megen') or Nymegen.
Nijmegen is possibly the oldest city in
the current Netherlands and celebrated its 2000th anniversary in
2005. During the Roman Empire, Nijmegen was part of the Limes, the
border between the Roman Empire and the various so-called Germanic
areas. The 10th legion of the Romans was stationed in Nijmegen from
71 to 104. During the Roman regime a large fort (castra) was built
on a hill on the Waal, a few parts remain. Excavations are also
regularly carried out where Roman items are found. Along the Waal,
where the Waterkwartier is now located, a new settlement arose that
of the Roman emperor Trajanus (originally from Italy, Spain) between
98 AD. and 102 AD. was granted city rights under the name Ulpia
Noviomagus Batavorum.
The city was formed as a trading post
next to the Roman castra. This offered an advantage because it
allowed the market to be protected by the legionaries and moreover
because the legionaries also needed many goods, for which they could
also pay a good price, because they received a reasonable salary.
The name Nijmegen is therefore derived from the Latin name
"Novio-magus", which means 'new market'. However, the Romans left
the fortress in the 3rd century.
Incidentally, there are
still clear traces of this rich history of Nijmegen. For example,
the large roundabout south of the Waal bridge has been called the
"Keizer Traianusplein" since 1956. There are still some ruins
between that square and the Waal and also on the hill near the Waal
there is still a defense tower Belvedère, even though it is of
course a lot younger than the aforementioned Roman castra.
At the beginning of
the fifth century the Romans disappeared from Nijmegen. Although
written and archaeological evidence is lacking, it is believed that
the fortress, settlement and surrounding area came into Frankish
hands. Because Charlemagne is said to have built a palace near
Nijmegen, the city is sometimes referred to as the Imperial City. He
is said to have had a palatinate (palace) built on the Valkhof
around 770 and celebrated Easter here several times, including in
777 but also in 804 and 808. The Frankish historian Einhard says
that Charlemagne built a palatium in Noviomagum. the Vahalem, a
river that flows south of the island of the Batavians. The fact that
this is Nijmegen is often defended and is also very plausible.
Charles's son, Louis the Pious, is also said to have often stayed in
Nijmegen. However, the Normans took the Palatinate around 880. This
led to its destruction upon their departure. The city is now known
under the name Numaga. At the bottom of the hill on the Waal was a
trading settlement.
The Palatinate played an important role
during Ottonian and Salic times. Emperor Otto III was born in the
Ketelwoud on his way from Aachen to the Palatinate in Nijmegen. In
991 Empress Theophanu, originally a Byzantine princess, died in the
Palatinate. Around 1030, possibly as early as 996, the
Sint-Nicolaaskapel was built in the palace, one of the few preserved
Romanesque buildings in the Netherlands. The chapel was built after
the example of the Carolingian Palatine Church in Aachen. In 1047
the palace was burnt to the ground by Godfrey II of Upper Lorraine
during a revolt against Emperor Henry III. Thereafter, the imperial
visits to Nijmegen came to a temporary end.
In the Middle
Ages, the city became a significant center. In 1155 Frederik
Barbarossa had his castle Valkhof completed. History is recorded in
the facing brick that he had applied. In 1230 the city formally
acquired its city charter. In 1247 the city came into the hands of
the counts of Gelre. Initially it was pledged by Roman King William
of Holland to Count Otto II in Gelderland, but because Willem II
could not pay off his debts due to financial problems, the city of
Gelderland remained in possession and soon became the most important
of the four Gelderland capitals. In addition, it became a Hanseatic
city. In 1543, however, Nijmegen, like the rest of Gelre, came under
Habsburg rule.
The Reformation was positively received in Nijmegen. Protestants
and Roman Catholics had equal rights in 1566, but in 1579 the roles
were reversed and it was the Catholics who were oppressed. It is not
unlikely that this was partly the reason for "his most Catholic king
of Spain" to start a campaign against the rebellious northern
provinces (i.e. the Netherlands).
Nijmegen was besieged a
number of times during the Eighty Years' War. On March 16, 1585,
Nijmegen sent an envoy to Alexander Farnese, the Duke of Parma, to
come to an agreement whereby the Reformed and Protestants lost their
newly acquired rights. During the second Siege of Nijmegen in 1591,
Nijmegen was recaptured by Prince Maurits.
Nijmegen was later
occupied by the French from 1672 to 1674, but peace was restored in
1678 by the peace of Nijmegen, which concluded the peace between the
Republic of the Netherlands and France.
Nijmegen already had
a port in the 14th century. This was moved and expanded in
1601-1604. The current Waalhaven was constructed around 1852, after
which the old port was filled in.
In 1923, as part of the
Catholic emancipation movement, Nijmegen was given a university with
a Roman Catholic signature, the current Radboud University.
The last time Nijmegen was in the firing line of a war was in World
War II. In May 1940 it was the first Dutch city to fall into German
hands. The city suffered extensive damage during the war. On
February 22, 1944, hundreds were killed in an Allied (American)
bombing raid on the city center, in which the city center and the
station were particularly hit. In September 1944, during Operation
Market Garden, heavy fighting took place in and around the city to
get and keep the Waal Bridge undamaged, which the British and
Americans eventually succeeded (see also De Over crossing).
The "Plein 1944", which was created as a result of the American
bombardment, remained largely undeveloped after the war. Since 2013
there have been apartment complexes and a parking garage under the
square. During construction, the remains of an old city wall that
can be viewed in the bicycle cellar underneath the square.
From 1890 to 1940, Nijmegen was, after The Hague,
the most important 'Indian' city. The European branch of the Royal
Netherlands Indies Army (KNIL), the Colonial Reserve, had been based
in Nijmegen since 1890. From 1911 they moved into the Prins
Hendrikkazerne. The Colonial Reserve formed the basis of the
Nijmegen Four Days Marches. The first edition, which was organized
in 1909 by the Dutch Association for Physical Education (NBvLO), had
a different set-up than today. Three years later, the Four Days
Marches departed from Utrecht. On the third day, the participants
then walked from Ede via the Betuwe to Nijmegen to spend the night
there in the Prins Hendrikkazerne, home of the Colonial Reserve. On
the last day there was a walk through the surroundings of Nijmegen
and the barracks were once again the end point. A Flag Parade was
held for the first time in 1928 as the official opening of the Four
Days Marches. This tradition, too, was introduced by the Colonial
Reserve. The parade was held in the courtyard of the Prins
Hendrikkazerne and later to the parade ground. Military home
Insulinde, for returning KNIL soldiers, was founded in 1918 in Hees.
In 1951 the Colonial Reserve was disbanded.
The city with its
beautiful canals and houses attracted people from the Indies as
planters, government officials and industrialists. They had capital
villas built, especially in the Hunnerberg district, in the villages
of Hees and Hatert and along the highways. A good example is the
Villa Padang on the Groesbeekseweg 181, and Villa Salatiga. Country
houses were also built in Beek and Ubbergen. Around 1900 a
residential area was named after General Joannes Benedictus van
Heutsz, who was the first to visit Nijmegen after the pacification
of Aceh.
Nijmegen has two neighborhoods where the street
names refer to the Indonesian past. The Java neighborhood, from the
twenties of the twentieth century, is located on the north side of
the Galgenveld district. This neighborhood is a protected cityscape.
Between 2015 and 2018, a new district, Batavia, was built near the
Waal, where the streets are named after Indian people from Nijmegen.
Due to neglect and poverty, the Lower City (the part of the
center that is located in the low part, on the Waal) fell into
disrepair after the construction of the Waal Bridge. Although the
Lower Town was more or less spared the acts of war, the condition of
this district was such that, due to the many buildings already
demolished and poor living conditions (dilapidated buildings
declared uninhabitable, houses without sanitary facilities, etc.),
it was decided in 1972 after years of discussions and planning. was
turned into large-scale demolition and rebuilding. In 1975 the Lower
Town was declared a "protected cityscape", but by then most of the
medieval buildings had already been demolished. Only (parts of) a
few streets have remained original and been restored.
In the
sixties and seventies Nijmegen acquired the image of a red city. In
those years there were many Marxists who stood out because of the
relatively large population of students. A violent confrontation
between the leftist squatters and the Nijmegen administration took
place in February 1981, the Pierson riots.
Since the Second
World War, the city has expanded considerably in a westerly and
especially southwestern direction. The villages of Hatert, Hees and
Neerbosch and the hamlet of Brakkenstein were swallowed up by
districts of the same name. The most important expansion was the
construction of 10,000 homes in Dukenburg (from 1966) and 6,000 in
Lindenholt (from 1977), west of the Maas-Waal canal. Initially, the
municipality did not want to build on the west side of the Maas-Waal
Canal, but in the Ooijpolder. In 1951 there were already plans for
the construction of 17,000 homes in this area east of the center.
After much protest against the development of the landscape valuable
polder, plans for the development of the Ooijpolder were
definitively scrapped in 1970.
The structure of the city thus
became very unbalanced: the center was in the northeast and the
urban expansions took place up to 7 kilometers from there in a south
and west direction. For a long time, the Waal was an impregnable
barrier that determined the northern boundary of the buildings. From
the end of the 1990s, the city has expanded significantly north of
the Waal, at the Vinex location Waal spring. Eventually some 15,000
homes will be built here.
In the period 2010-2025, a new
district, the Waalfront, will be built on the site of the old port
and industrial area that borders the Waterkwartier and the Waal.