Nijmegen

Nijmegen

an industrial town in the E Netherlands, in Gelderland province on the Waal River: the oldest town in the country; scene of the signing (1678) of the peace treaty between Louis XIV, the Netherlands, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire. Pop.: 156 000 (2003 est.)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Nijmegen

 

a city in the Netherlands, in Gelderland Province, on the Waal River (a branch of the Rhine). Population, 208,000 (1972). Nijmegen is a railroad and waterway junction and a commercial and industrial center. It has machine-building, electrical engineering, food-and-condiments, garment, paper, leather footwear, and chemical industries. Porcelain and faience products are also manufactured. The city has a university (founded in 1923) and museums. A Roman settlement once existed on the site of Nijmegen. From the eighth to tenth centuries the city was one of the residences of the Carolingians.

The center of a polygonal chapel and the capitals of the columns of its apse are apparently all that remains of Charlemagne’s palace, known as the Valkhof (777), in Nijmegen. Other noteworthy buildings in the city are the Gothic church of Saint Stephen (1254–1605), a Renaissance town hall (1554–55), the Netherlands Bank (1954, architect H. T. Zviers), and the State Theater (1961, architects B. Bijvoet and G. H. M. Holt).

REFERENCE

[Jong, J. A. B. M. de.] Nijmegen: Monumenten uit een rijk verleden. [Nijmegen, 1959.]

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.