Valkenburg aan de Geul

Valkenburg aan de Geul is built along a small river in the hill country of southern Limburg, below the ruins of the castle of its medieval counts, destroyed in 1672 by William III to keep it from the French, and never rebuilt. The town became a holiday resort for well-to-do Dutch families in the nineteenth century, a trade that took off once the railway from Maastricht reached it in 1853; Valkenburg still has the oldest surviving station in the country. Pierre Cuypers lived here and added a hotel, an open-air theatre and a replica of the Roman catacombs. The marl caves beneath the town hold Christmas markets each winter.