The weekend is approaching. You’ve got itchy feet but don’t fancy crowded capitals. What are the options? Aachen, Maastricht, Liège, Hasselt, Eupen? Under two hour’s drive from Brussels is Europe’s very own Golden Triangle – minus the opium production – of possibilities where Germany, Belgium and Holland intersect.
A refrain about Belgium is that it is close to everything (else). Ignoring the tacit slight to its own tourist appeal, the fact is you can easily escape for a long weekend to the border countries in every direction. And in just one pocket hemmed in by the E40, E313 and E25 motorways you have at least two historic cities and some hidden treats well worth visiting.
Foremost is Aachen, a compact city (pop. 250,000) in Germany long famed for its healing waters, Cathedral, and heritage as a Mediaeval coronation site. To this day, Aachen celebrates its close connections to Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, through eight ‘stations’. An audio guide and printed booklet shepherd visitors along a well-marked route starting at the ‘Centre Charlemagne – New City Museum of Aachen’.
These stations explore different themes in the city’s history, from the exercise of ‘power’ – featured in the Rathaus (Town Hall) – to ‘religion’, as represented by the ‘Dom’ (Cathedral). The neoclassical Elisenbrunnen pavilion heralds Aachen’s spa tradition, while an open-air archaeological dig in the square behind the pavilion uncovers the city’s historical layers. Another stop tucked into the mediaeval laneways is the Couven Museum, which offers a snapshot of life in the 18th and 19th centuries, evinced through the belle epoque designs of Jakob Couven.
1. The power of light
The first written record of Aachen was by the Frankish King Pippin ‘The Short’ who regaled in a Christmas spent at his capella in 765 AD. The oldest parts of Aachen’s Cathedral are thought to have been built over 1,200 years ago, though researchers can only reliably trace its origins to the early 8th century.
In around 800 AD Charlemagne commissioned extensive work on what was then St Mary’s Church. His grand vision for expanding the complex included an interior ‘octagon’ rotunda surrounded by a sixteen-sided outer structure. His nearby residence (Palace) was physically separate from the Church, but the two are considered to be connected by a shared architectural vision, suggests the Route Charlemagne Aachen guidebook.
The Cathedral is free to enter and not overly crowded, despite reports by Aachen Tourism that it receives over 1 million visitors annually. Inside, the vast stain-glass windows appear to be reaching for the sky. The Palatine Chapel is a kaleidoscopic dreamscape of shimmering azure blue, gold and red. Mediaeval artistry on full display.
Aachen is worth a day trip just to see this UNESCO World Heritage site – the first to be listed in Germany, and one of only a dozen named worldwide on the inaugural 1978 list.
1.1. Charlemagne
During his lifetime (~747-814 AD), Charlemagne is credited with transforming the nature of kingship in early Medieval Europe, first as King of the Franks (768-814) and then Lombards (774-814), and later as Holy Roman Emperor (800-814). He united much of Western and Central Europe, laying the foundations for modern France and Germany.
“[He] was known to contemporaries as Karlus, in the Old High German he spoke, Karlo, to Romance speakers, and Carolus (or alternatively Karolus) in Latin, the formal language of writing and diplomacy,” notes Wikipedia about the linguistic melting pot of the era.
‘Charles the Great’ spearheaded the Carolingian Renaissance, a cultural and intellectual revival in Europe, and oversaw major administrative reforms including standardised weights and measures. His military conquests over the Saxons and Lombards were legendary. Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the Romans to consolidate spiritual-political influence in the West of the Empire.
The Carolingian Rule – Charles and his descendants – has helped to shape European politics, culture, and religion to this day. It is no coincidence that his name adorns buildings, parks and streets across Europe, and why the European Union reserves a special place in its heart for Charlemagne, the ‘Father of Europe’.
2. Off-beat, there and back…
If you’re driving and have some time to spare on the way to Aachen (or back) you can visit the Val-Dieu Abbey and Brewery. Surrounded by rolling green hills and curated gardens, the Abbey sits at the epicentre of the Golden Triangle. You can grab a coffee in the courtyard, visit the church on the grounds, and of course pick up some truly excellent Val-Dieu beer ‘samples’.
For something different, the nearby Commanderie Fish Farm and restaurant is an absolute gem. You can stroll the grounds, see where the (mostly) salmon trout are raised – in different ponds, from fingerlings (love that word!) to plate-ready adults – and all set on the grounds of the Sint-Pieters-Voeren Castle. Weather-permitting, dining alfresco along the ponds is truly memorable. Take-away terrines and other trout-themed produce are available in the farm shop. The place is very popular on weekends in the warmer months so book well in advance!
A slightly more off-beat or indeed off-piste strop-over is the Fort Eben-Emael in the border country between Maastricht and Diepenbeek (outside Hasselt). It is part of a wider series of defences built along the Albert Canal and the surroundings of Antwerp and Liège.
“No region in the world has, during the ages, so often played a role in the history of wars as the wide(r) environment of Eben-Emael,” notes a translated guidebook dedicated to the fort, from Celtic and Roman times to Franco-German skirmishes and, ultimately, the First and Second World Wars.
Built by the Belgian government between 1932 and 1935 and costing 24 million Belgian Francs (a vast sum for the time), the fort cuts deeply into Saint-Peter’s Hill, a snug butte in the shadow of Eben-Emael village. Ignoring the rusting tank on the site, the only real sign that something is going on inside the hill is a concrete-steel portico completely surrounded by shrubbery.
From the air, the shape of the fort is plain to see, built as an isosceles triangle measuring 180m x 370m. The whole site covers some 75 hectares. Gun turrets once projected in various directions from the fortification. At its peak, the fort housed a garrison of 1,200 men.
With its original features and industrial smell, an eerie war-time presence hangs over the site. Rooms have been mocked up to show the subterranean lives of the soldiers, where they slept, ate, bathed, ailed … and died. Occupying several levels, the mapped-out tour traverses dimly lit tunnels with hidden nooks and chambers on either side. It can be disorienting – and claustrophobic for some – but it’s a captivating journey.
A multilingual video tells the story of Hitler’s daring raid of the fort in 1940, marking the start of Germany’s Manstein Plan (Yellow Plan or Fall Gelb). For German forces, taking neutral Belgium was considered expedient in the dash to the North Sea – what would become known as the ‘Battle of France’.
Under a moonless night on 10 May, a silent force of specially-trained paratroopers landed purpose-built gliders on top of the fort, taking the Belgians by complete surprise. A coordinated German attack was also launched to take control of nearby bridges crossing the Albert Canal.
Innovative explosives and flamethrowers were used to disable the outer defences of the fortress, effectively sealing it off. Now under siege, the remaining garrison was forced to surrender the next day. In total, 24 Belgians and six Germans were killed or wounded in the action to take the fort.
Opposite the fort’s main entrance is a meandering stream and old mill, which has been converted into a restaurant and outdoor terrace serving crêpes and simple fare.
3. Freaky frontières
From Aachen, you can reach Maastricht by car or train in around 40 minutes, whip across to Eupen (capital of Belgium’s German-speaking cantons) in half an hour, head across to Liège or Namur in Wallonia, or keep a northern trajectory and check out Hasselt or Tongeren, both in Flanders.
To visitors from abroad, being able to cross in and out of three countries (and different language-speaking regions within Belgium) within half an hour or so might feel a bit freaky. But for most Europeans this sort of frictionless border-hopping is taken for granted – a product of the European Union’s single market allowing free movement of goods, people, capital and services, or the “four freedoms”.
Much is made of this distinctly ‘European’ approach to borders in the New City Museum in Aachen – what it describes as a legacy of the Second World War prompting political and cultural unification in Europe. “Today, the soft borders between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, immigration, tourism … have [all] transformed Aachen’s character into that of a multicultural metropolis,” notes the Route Charlemagne Guide.
The quirks of this Golden Triangle are captured in the Customs Museum located in the town of Aachen-Horbach (call ahead) and on a dedicated Trois Frontières website.