Valkenburg

Bennie with his Benni sweater :D

Monuments

Ever since the Roman occupation there have been marlstone quarries and have Valkenburg inhabitants built their castles, farms and houses from this soft yellow stone. The municipality of Valkenburg aan de Geul has got nearly 200 officially listed monuments, remarkable buildings, some of which such as Valkenburg Station, the oldest Dutch station, still in use.

The Castle Ruins

High up on Heunsberg hill, right in the idle of Valkenburg, lies the only hilltop fortress the Netherlands landscape boasts, The castle ruins constitute one of the many proofs of the rich and buzzing past of Valkenburg. A tangible past that goes back far as the Middle Ages.

Caves

Valkenburg aan de Geul is sometimes popularly called Marlstone Town, For Valkenburg soil is rich in lime, the soft yellow marlstone, which, since Roman times, has been quarried as building material. As a result of marlstone quarrying there is now a network of underground corridors that, these days, is over 250km long. In Valkenburg, or to be precise, under Valkenburg, we find a truly fascinating world.

These caves are home to a number of attractions and in it a variety of events is staged, such as the famous Christmas Markets in the Municipal and Fluweelen Caves.