From an Autonomous City to a Provincial Town

During the French administration of Maastricht, which lasted until 1814, the city was made the capital of the department of the Nedermaas (Lower Meuse). The old social organization – which was still based on the medieval classes – thus came to an end. These were confusing times for Maastricht, with first an all-determining 'Administration Centrale' (1794-1795), a 'Directoire' (1795-1799), then a Consulat (1799-1804) and finally an 'Empire' (1804-1814), after which Maastricht was incorporated into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Fig. 26: View from the courtyard of Our Lady's Church to the south. Due to demolition work, you could see through the nave of the church

In this troubled period, the city was redesigned, with temporary facilities in monasteries and churches (such as stables, warehouses, forges, hospitals). For the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein and the surrounding area, this meant that the canons were scared away or they quietly retreated. The former ‘rich religious life’ disappeared from this area. Churches and four houses on and adjacent to the square were nationalized and sold, sometimes for very low prices. Much of the estates, however, lay outside the city. The Saint Nicholas Church was allowed to remain a parish church for a while, the Church of Our Lady became a military forge and even after the French era a storage house of the Dutch government. In 1837, the Nicholas Church had become too small and so dilapidated that the ecclesiastical function was transferred to the Church of Our Lady. The Saint Nicolas Church was subsequently demolished in 1838. In the later nineteenth and early twentieth century, we see the further development of this area: the establishment of a commercial bank in the south-west corner of the square (corner of Cortenstraat; the so-called House with the Pelican), the establishment of a printing company on OLV Square 23 (just next to the cafés) and finally a brewery and an ever-expanding bread factory on the south side of the square, where the new building ‘Hondertmarck’ has been recently built.

Reference: 

Ubachs, P.J.H., & I.M.H. Evers, Historische Encyclopedie Maastricht, Zutphen 2005.