Guided tour to the Jesuit Caves in St Pietersberg
and Château Neercanne

20 minutes drive by bus from Fort St. Pieter (Lunch venue)

Caves
The famous 'St. Pietersberg' caves are the result of centuries of excavation of marl, a building stone. What we now see is an enormous labyrinth of more than 20,000 passages. The stone-hewers have left their marks. On the walls are interesting inscriptions, some extremely old; artists too, have been at work here. During the many sieges Maastricht has suffered, and also during the last world war, local inhabitants used the passages as a shelter; some of the emergency provisions are still to be seen.

The temperature in the caves is 9° -10; visitors are therefore advised to take a cardigan, pullover or coat with them. The round-trips, which last about an hour, are led by official VVV Tourist Office guides. Two sections of the labyrinths are open to the public.

Château Neercanne
Château Neercanne is only five minutes away from the heart of 2,000-year-old Maastricht and adjacent to the Belgian border. It is the only terraced castle in the Netherlands. Baron Wolf van Dopff built this impressive castle in 1698. The Château has a rich cultural and culinary tradition and is proud to be regarded as one of the best restaurants in the Benelux for many decades. The wine cellars are located in the old passageways of the marl cave. These passageways offer ideal conditions for the storage of wine and truly incomparable surroundings for a wine-tasting. Located on the Cannerberg, in the valley of the Jeker, where you will find several vineyards.

Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands provided on the 9th December 1991, for the second time in history, a festive lunch at Château Neercanne, when the Queen welcomed the heads of the governments of the EU Member States attending the Maastricht Summit at the Universiteit Maastricht.