The Caves of Maastricht, also known as the caves of

Mount Saint Peter Mount Saint Peter (French: ''Montagne Saint-Pierre''; Dutch: ''Sint-Pietersberg''), also referred to as Caestert Plateau, is the northern part of a plateau running north to south between the valleys of the river Geer to the west, and the Meuse t ...

Bender, Marvin "A DUTCH TREAT" The New York Times Nov 8 1981 https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/08/travel/a-dutch-treat.html or the Maastricht Underground, are a collection of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

quarries in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, the origins of which date back to the 13th century. They were originally dug to mine

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

. In total, a network of 20,000 tunnels were cut into the stone, of which 8,000 are still intact."The Caves of Maastricht" https://discoverlimburg.nl/caves-maastricht/ The caves were eventually no longer used for mining, as the value of lime dropped. Over some hundreds of years, art was drawn on the cave walls, providing an attraction to tourists who can tour some of the cave sections. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the cave complex was used to store many valuable paintings and armaments that could be used against the Germans, including a proposed force of 30 tanks that would sortie against the Germans that was timed to attack at the same point of liberation. In addition to the military, over 6,000 citizens took shelter in the caves during World War II. After the war, there were plans to utilise the underground complex as a bomb shelter. Among the paintings hidden in the caves during WWII was

The Night Watch ''Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq'', also known as ''The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'', but commonly referred to as ''The Night Watch'' ( nl, De Nachtwacht), i ...

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

. The canvas which measures 363 × 437 cm. was detached from its frame and rolled into a large cylinder. A large portion of the former tunnel system no longer exists as the encompassing limestone was quarried in an

open-cast mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...

operated by ENCI. Quarrying was ceased in 2018.

References

{{Man-made and man-related Subterranea Maastricht Caves of Europe Limestone industry Limestone caves

See also

References