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| Fig. 1: The Onze Lieve Vrouwplein and the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk in 2015 |
Standing on the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein (Square of Our Lady) in Maastricht, hardly anyone thinks about the complex and stacked history of this place, which symbolizes the history of Maastricht. 2000 years of history, a multitude of functions and uses, and literally many meters of archaeological deposits that caused the city to grow vertically. Today’s Onze Lieve Vrouweplein shows it all, if you know where to look, if you know how to read history. The place where the Jeker once flowed into the Maas, where the Romans started the first settlement and where one of the early medieval centers of Maastricht was located. The earliest church in Maastricht was built on this site and centuries later a second one, which has since been demolished. Where the second church once stood, there are now terraces for dining and leisure.
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| Fig. 2: The Onze Lieve Vrouwplein as parking space in the nineteen seventies |
Where the dead once lay buried, people now drink coffee, wine, or beer. An order of secular clergy (chapter lords) once ruled this ecclesiastical area, the local judicial process, as well as the economy for more than 800 years. This order built houses around the church and took care of the church treasures and archives. The chapter lords prayed their prayers, or had others do that for them. This chapter’s great competitor, but also religious brothers, were 'those of Servatius', who had their ecclesiastical counterparts on the Vrijthof in Maastricht. Also on the Vrijthof a collegiate church and a parish church stood side by side, with their own cemeteries.
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| Fig. 3: The Onze Lieve Vrouweplein with two churches: to the left the parish church dedicated to Saint Nicholas, to the right the chapter church, dedicated to Our Lady. Jan de Beyer, 1740. |
There, too, a ring of chapter houses stood around the churches and it had its own ecclesiastical jurisdiction, their ‘immunity’. The term ‘immunity’ refers to an area around a collegiate church and the houses surrounding that is called the 'claustral belt'. Everyone can now explore the history of the area of the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein – not just on location but via virtual reality as well. For this we use an excerpt from the model of Maastricht from 1748. The Onze Lieve Vrouweplein has had many and mainly temporary functions. Also the current position is only a temporary one. What would the square look like in 100 or 1000 years?