Garrison

Garrison City

Until 1567, the city was defended under its own power with the help of militia guilds and the citizenry organized in trades. However, under the orders of the governess Margaret of Parma, she was then forced to take up a permanent garrison because of its strategic importance. The appointed military governor is a fact from then on.

During the first phase of the Eighty Years' War, Maastricht, as the gateway to the Southern Netherlands, was extremely important to both sides. The attempts by William of Orange and his brothers in 1568 and 1574 to take the city were doomed to failure because they were inadequately prepared ( ladders too short or a dismounting army in awe)

Hogenberg map 1623
Hogenberg map 1623

The Turbulent Period

In 1576, the Spanish fury rages in the city. Three years later, after a heroic defense, Maastricht is taken by Field Marshal Parma. In 1632, Maastricht must capitulate to the "stedendwinger" Frederick Henry and becomes a , to the south, fortress of "The Republic of the Seven Provinces." The States General steps into the rights of the Dukes of Brabant, the Prince Bishop of Liege remains the respected but powerless co-sovereign.

Meanwhile, the fire artillery had undergone a spectacular development. The stone bullets were replaced by cast iron bullets that had a greater effect on the stone walls. The guns became heavier and more effective. The medieval city walls offered insufficient protection against this, nor were they suitable for the effective use of the urban thunderbusses, the heavier types of which had romanticized names such as "evil Griet," "the Red Dog," and "the Virgin of Tricht."

Siege of Maastricht 1579

The modernization of the fortress came about at the insistence of Brussels (1542-1555) and then as a result of the siege by Field Lord Parma in 1579. This modernization included the strengthening of the enceinte (ring wall), by bricking up the weather arches and raising an earthen dike body against the inside of the wall. Where necessary, a retaining wall was added to the inside of the wall.

The towers, which were good aiming points for enemy cannons, were broken down to wall height and then filled with rubble so that cannons could be placed on those remaining towers. The battlements on the walls were replaced by a continuous parapet of brick. This increased the resistance of the enceinte and provided suitable space for mounting one's own artillery on the rampart wall and the flattened towers, the so-called rondelles. Low polygonal artillery platforms were also built for the first time outside the wall in front of the gates and later at the foot of some of the roundels. They were called ravelins and could now effectively cover the moat and the field side of the wall. The ravelins lay like islands in the moat and hid the gates from enemy view. The fall of the ravelin in front of the Brussels Gate was the cause of the fall of the Brussels Gate and capture of the city in 1579, followed by the second Spanish Furie.

In 1579 besiegers first used underground mining galleries as an element of the attack.

The southern sector was secured by a wet moat and could also be protected by inundation with water from the Jeker River.

Because in dry periods the Meuse could not sufficiently supply the north side with water, shortly after 1579 the Spanish Garrison dug a deep trench in the bottom of the dry moat between the "Tongeren Gate" and the "Linden Cross Gate." This was thus an open connection from the Jeker, which supplied the moat in front of the Lindenkruispoort with water.
Prior to the garrison, fortification was a matter of the Magistrate ( the city). Now, for the first time, the garrison contributed to the improvement of the fortress. Therefore, negotiations on the amount of contribution were started.

From Nieuwstad to the Tongerspoort, the entire wall is still intact, except for about 150m from Haet ende Nijd to the old St. Peter's Gate.