Boschpoort (, ) is a neighbourhood of

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

in the Dutch province of Limburg. The suburb is situated in the North Western area of the town, on the West bank of the river

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

. The ''Dörp'' (; "village") as it is colloquially known is home to approximately 1500 people.

History

The neighbourhood took its name from the old ''Boschpoort'' (English: ''

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

Gate''), one of the seven former city gates of Maastricht. The Boschpoort gate and the outlying defense works were demolished in the 1860s when Maastricht ceased to be a fortress town. The Boschpoort neighbourhood was built slightly North of the old city gate in the early twentieth century. It was largely a

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

neighbourhood, being close to the ''Sphinx'' potteries, the paper factory and other industries around the ''Bassin'' inner harbour and the

Zuid-Willemsvaart The Zuid-Willemsvaart (; translated: ''South William's Canal'') is a canal in the south of the Netherlands and the east of Belgium. Route The Zuid-Willemsvaart is a canal in the provinces Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg (Belgium), and North B ...

canal. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

some new areas were added.

Recent history

Populationwise, the area has been in decline for several decades. The

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

''church of Saint Hubert'', an imposing expressionist building dating from the 1920s, was sold in 2009 after having stood empty for several years and has been converted into a fitness centre. The local primary school was closed in 2010 after an intense and emotional fight by locals and parents to keep it open.de Blickopener
It is hoped that the neighbourhood will benefit from plans for regeneration of the industrial North Western part of Maastricht (''Belvédère Project'').

References

External links

Website ''Blickopener'', local bulletin

Website Belvédère Project
{{coord, 50.8631, N, 5.6894, E, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:NL, display=title Neighbourhoods of Maastricht