Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands, granted Roman market and city rights by the Emperor Trajan around 100 AD, and it is also one of the most damaged. On 22 February 1944 a misdirected American bombing raid cut a swathe from the Valkhof to the railway station and killed close to eight hundred civilians, and the September fighting for the Waal bridges burned much of what was left. What makes the city worth a day is that both cities are still visible at once: the medieval Grote Markt and the Sint-Stevenskerk that survived, and the post-war rebuild that fills the gaps, on real hills above a very wide river.
A bluff above the Waal where the Romans built, and where Charlemagne held his palace in 777. The fortress was demolished in 1796 and citizens' protest saved two fragments: the Sint-Nicolaaskapel and the Barbarossa ruin. It is the oldest park in the city and the view over the river is the best in town.
Free and always open. The climb up from the centre is gentle, the descent to the quay is steeper and has steps.
Official siteBegun in 1254 and dedicated in 1273 by Albertus Magnus. The tower and the streets around it took the worst of the 1944 raid, and restoration ran for roughly twenty-five years before it reopened. It was very badly damaged, not destroyed, and the difference is visible inside.
Usually open daily around 10:00 to 17:00. From April to September a guild guide takes visitors up the tower, as a separate climb and a separate ticket.
Official siteThe Waalbrug was opened by Queen Wilhelmina in 1936 and its 244-metre arch was then the longest in Europe. Downstream is De Oversteek, opened in 2013 and named for the 1944 crossing, whose forty-eight pairs of lights are lit one pair at a time each evening while a veteran walks the bridge in silence.
The Sunset March happens every evening at sunset, whatever the weather. Anyone can join and walk with the veteran.
Official siteBilled as the oldest shopping street in the Netherlands, now full of independent shops, and home to Cafe In de Blaauwe Hand, whose hospitality tradition is dated to 1542. It was among the areas worst hit on 22 February 1944.
The Stikke Hezelstraat end climbs steadily up to the Grote Markt. It is the steepest few minutes in the centre.
Official siteHet Valkhof on Kelfkensbos holds the Roman archaeology that makes the oldest-city claim concrete. De Bastei, on the Waalkade, is built into a 16th-century bastion and covers two thousand years of building alongside the river, with an underground archaeological route.
De Bastei is the better wet-weather option and sits right at the end of a river walk.
Official siteThe International Four Days Marches is the largest walking event in the world: more than forty-five thousand people from over seventy countries walking thirty, forty or fifty kilometres a day for four days in the third week of July, with a week of festivities filling the centre.
Extraordinary to witness and extremely busy. Routes are diverted and normal tours are constrained, so book far ahead and expect a modified route.
Official siteOfficial sources, so you can check today's hours and prices rather than trusting ours. All open in a new tab.
Coach set-down and parking in Nijmegen changes during the Vierdaagse week in July, when large parts of the centre are closed to traffic. Confirm the current arrangement with the city before travelling.
Official coach informationIt has the strongest claim. A Roman military camp stood here in the 1st century BC, the settlement was renamed Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum under Trajan around 100 AD and received Roman city and market rights then, and Dutch city rights followed in 1230. Maastricht contests the title, and the argument turns on whether you count the Roman town or continuous city rights. Both cities are used to being asked.
American bombers, thrown off by cloud, German fighter attacks and unnoticed wind drift, released their loads over Nijmegen instead of their German target. Bombs fell in a line from the Valkhof to the station area and close to eight hundred people were killed, among them twenty-four children and eight nuns at a Montessori kindergarten and convent.
Less than you would expect. Across the war the city lost more than two thousand two hundred residents, around five thousand houses were destroyed and thirteen thousand more badly damaged. What survived is worth the walk: the Grote Markt with De Waagh of 1612, the Stevenskerk shell, the Lange Hezelstraat, the Kruittoren and the Valkhof fragments. Reading the difference between what survived and what was rebuilt is a large part of what makes the city interesting.
The road and rail bridges over the Waal were the second-to-last objective on the road to Arnhem. On the afternoon of 20 September 1944 men of the 82nd Airborne crossed the river downstream of the city in canvas assault boats in daylight. More than half of the roughly two hundred and sixty men in the first wave were killed or wounded. The bridges were taken that day.
It is the hilliest city centre in the Netherlands, which is a low bar but a real one. There are two modest climbs and one steeper descent with steps from the Valkhof down to the Waalkade. Anyone comfortable on their feet for two hours is fine, and a guide can route around the steps if you say so in advance.
