Pieken en musketten ~ Of pikes and muskets

The above text I took from the 1910 edition  of the "Groninger Almanak" , a 19th century yearbook-series  about "interesting things happening in the Province of Groningen", mostly historic facts about people, streetnames and the like.


This text states that the pikes, used by the city militia is to replaced by flintlocks. THis is about the same period that in the States' army the pike was to be replaced.

Maastricht II

Some more pics. The guns are Navy Guns, so are not original, and date IIRC from the Napoleonic period. The fortress is not for the claustrophobic...

Maastricht Fortress of St Peter

This years expedition was to the Limburg Capital of Maastricht were we visited the St Peter Fortress. In 1672 the St Peter Hill was used by the French to bombard the city and near the city using the hill's cave system (the rock is used as a building material), so the Estates General ordered a new fortress to be build to protect the city, which went rather well. In 1701 the fortress with a great view on the surrounding landscape and the river Meuse was finished.

It is also possible to visit the cave system itself but it is not possible anymore to go from the caves to the fortress, as some of the corridors have collapsed.

Maastricht has a lot to offer, some of the old city walls are standing there as well, as the first picture shows.