Qualla: Maaseik

Maaseik: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sonuwe, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a Gospel book in the sacristy of Saint Catherine's church in Maaseik that was almost certainly produced in the early eighth century, and may have been touched by the saints Herlindis and Relindis themselves. It is called the Codex Eyckensis. It is the oldest book in the Benelux. The town that holds it has 25,000 inhabitants, a market square shaded by lime trees, a statue of the Van Eyck brothers in the middle of it, the oldest functioning pharmacy in Belgium across the road, and a Roman road running through its history. None of that turns up in the average travel itinerary. Maaseik mostly keeps its treasures quiet.

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Image: Sonuwe | CC BY-SA 3.0

Maaseik: Two Sisters, an Oak and a Border

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kleon3, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name 'Maaseik' means Meuse oak. The neighbouring hamlet of Aldeneik - older oak - is the elder sibling, founded by tradition around 700 AD when a Frankish lord named Adelard established a Benedictine nunnery there. His two daughters became its abbesses and eventually its sain...

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Image: Kleon3 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Maaseik: City Walls and Burned Houses

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kleon3, CC BY-SA 3.0. The town was probably founded around the year 1000, perhaps by the same canons of nearby Aldeneik, on the old Roman road from Maastricht to Nijmegen. It received its city charter in 1244 from the County of Loon, and when Loon was absorbed into the Bishopric of Liege in the fourte...

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Image: Kleon3 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Maaseik: The Van Eyck Brothers

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Georges Jansoone (JoJan), CC BY 3.0. On the north side of the market square stands a nineteenth-century statue of two men who probably grew up here. Hubert van Eyck (around 1385/90-1426) and his younger brother Jan (around 1390-1441) are usually credited with inventing the technique that turned Northern Renaissance ...

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Image: Georges Jansoone (JoJan) | CC BY 3.0

Maaseik: The Oldest Pharmacy in Belgium

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ziko van Dijk, CC BY-SA 4.0. Across from the market, in the Pharmacy Museum on the Markt, is the apotheek - the pharmacy museum - that has a reasonable claim to being the oldest pharmacy in the country. Its original Delftware pots and tin jars still line the shelves where they were arranged centuries ago. Be...

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Image: Ziko van Dijk | CC BY-SA 4.0

Maaseik: Across the Meuse

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sonuwe, CC BY-SA 3.0. Maaseik sits on the left bank of the Meuse, on the Belgian side, but the river here is called the Grensmaas - 'border Meuse' - because the channel is the international boundary. On the far bank is the Netherlands. The bridge that connects Maaseik to its Dutch twin Echt-Susteren w...

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Image: Sonuwe | CC BY-SA 3.0