Monday, February 4, 2019

Caves of Maastricht

Mccapra: /* References */ added categories


Also known as the Marl Caves of Maastricht/''Grotten Sint-Pietersberg''/The Maastricht Underground is a collection of underground caves, the origins of which go back to the 13th century.

The caves were originally dug to mine Marl. Over time the caves formed an underground network so vast that it was used for other purposes.

The caves were no longer used for mining, as the value of Lime dropped, and an open faced quarry was used. During WW2 the Cave complex was used to store many valuable paintings, and armanents that could be used against the Germans, including a proposed sortie of 30 tanks that would sortie against the Germans that was timed to attack at the same point of liberation.
IN addition to the military, over 6000 citizens took shelter in the caves during WW2.
Over some hundreds of years, art has been drawn on the cave walls, providing some attraction to tourists who can tour some of the cave sections. <ref>"the astonishing caves of maastricht" http://bit.ly/2HOTaMV </ref> <ref>"The Caves of Maastricht" http://bit.ly/2t62P7I> <ref>Bender, Marvin "A DUTCH TREAT" The New York Times Nov 8 1981 https://nyti.ms/2HRxfVm>

Valauable paintings, including the famous Nachwatch were never discovered.

After the war, there were plans to utilise the underground complex as a bomb shelter.

The caves stretch 200 miles long, and have 23,000 passages.<ref>Bender, Marvin "A DUTCH TREAT" The New York Times Nov 8 1981 https://nyti.ms/2HRxfVm>

== References ==


[[Category:Maastricht]]
[[Category:Caves of Europe]]


from Wikipedia - New pages [en] http://bit.ly/2t3OFE7
via IFTTT

No comments:

Post a Comment