Antiquity The first mention of Nijmegen in history is in the first century BCE, when the
Romans built a military camp on the place where Nijmegen was to appear; the location had great strategic value because of the surrounding hills, which give a good view over the river Waal and
Rhine valley. By 69, when the
Batavi, the original inhabitants of the
Rhine and
Meuse (
Maas) delta,
revolted, a village called
Oppidum Batavorum had formed near the Roman camp. This village was destroyed in the revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp where the
Legio X Gemina was stationed. Soon after, another village formed around this camp. In 98, Nijmegen was the first of two settlements in what is now the
Kingdom of the Netherlands to receive
Roman city rights. In 103, the X
Gemina was restationed in
Vindobona, now
Vienna, which may have been a major blow to the economy of the village around the camp, losing around 5000 inhabitants. In 104 Emperor
Trajan renamed the town, which became known as
Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum, Noviomagus for short, the ultimate origin of the current name. A collection of artifacts from Roman antiquity were compiled by
Johannes Smetius in the 17th century, called the
Smetius Collection. In January 2022, archeologists led by Pepijn van de Geer announced the discovery of an intact 2,000-year-old blue glass bowl with a vertical stripe pattern in Nijmegen. Researchers assume that this well-preserved bowl was made in a glass workshop. According to van de Geer, this type of bowl was made by allowing molten glass to cool and harden over a mold.
Middle Ages Beginning in the latter half of the 4th century, Roman power decreased and Noviomagus eventually became part of
Francia. It also appeared around this time on the . In the 8th century Emperor
Charlemagne maintained his
palatium in Nijmegen in 777, and possibly on at least three more occasions. During his brief deposition of 830, the emperor
Louis the Pious was sent to Nijmegen by his son,
Lothair I. Thanks to the
Waal, trade flourished.
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, was born at Nijmegen in 1165. In 1230 his son
Frederick II granted Nijmegen
city rights. In 1247, the city was ceded to the count of
Guelders as
collateral for a loan. The loan was never repaid, and Nijmegen has been a part of Gelderland ever since. This did not hamper trade; Nijmegen even became part of the
Hanseatic League in 1364. The arts also flourished in this period. Famous medieval painters like the
Limbourg brothers were born and educated in Nijmegen. Some of
Hieronymus Bosch's ancestors also came from the city.
Early modern period During the
Dutch Revolt, trade came to a halt and even though Nijmegen became a part of the Republic of United Provinces after its
capture from the Spanish in 1591, it remained a
border town and had to endure multiple sieges. In 1678 Nijmegen was host to the negotiations between the European powers that aimed to put an end to the constant warfare that had ravaged the continent for years. The result was the
Treaty of Nijmegen that failed to provide for a lasting peace. In 1702, at the start of the
War of the Spanish Succession, the French nearly took Nijmegen by surprise. Only because of the intervention of an Anglo-Dutch army under the
Earl of Athlone and the bravery of the citizens of Nijmegen was the
Assault on Nijmegen repulsed. In the second half of the 19th century, the fortifications around the city became a major problem. There were too many inhabitants inside the walls, but the fortifications could not be demolished because Nijmegen was deemed as being of vital importance to the defence of the Netherlands. When events in the
Franco-Prussian War proved that old-fashioned fortifications were no longer of use, this policy was changed and the fortifications were dismantled in 1874. The old castle had already been demolished in 1797, so that its bricks could be sold. Through the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Nijmegen grew steadily. In 1923 the current
Radboud University Nijmegen was founded and in 1927 a channel was dug between the
Waal and
Meuse (
Maas) rivers. The Waal was bridged in 1878 by a
rail bridge and in 1936 by a
road bridge, which was claimed to be Europe's biggest bridge at the time. In November 2013 a second road bridge (), 2 km downstream, was opened to ease congestion.
World War II In 1940,
the Netherlands was invaded by Germany, with Nijmegen being the first Dutch city to fall into German hands. On 22 February 1944,
Nijmegen was heavily bombed by American planes, causing great damage to the city centre. It was subsequently claimed by the Allies that the American pilots thought they were bombing the German city of
Kleve, while the Germans alleged that it was a planned operation authorised by the Dutch government in exile. The Dutch organization for investigating wartime atrocities, the
NIOD, announced in January 2005 that its study of the incident confirmed that it was an accident caused by poor communications and chaos in the airspace. Over 750 people died in the bombardment. During September 1944, the city saw heavy fighting during
Operation Market Garden. The objective of the
Battle of Nijmegen was mainly to prevent the Germans from destroying the bridges. Capturing the road bridge allowed the British Army
XXX Corps to attempt to reach the
1st British Airborne Division in
Arnhem. The bridge was heavily defended by over 300 German troops on both the north and south sides with close to 20
anti-tank guns and two
anti-aircraft guns, supported with artillery. The Germans' late attempt to blow the road bridge was possibly foiled by a local Dutch resistance hero,
Jan van Hoof, who is said to have cut the wires to the bridge. The Germans made repeated attacks on the bridge using bombs attached to driftwood, midget submarines and later resorted to shelling the bridge with
88mm barrages. Troops were positioned on the bridge giving an excellent
arc of fire in case of attack. Troops that could not fit onto the bridge were positioned in a bombed-out house slightly upstream of the bridge. During the shelling, the house was hit, killing six soldiers and wounding one. Nijmegen was liberated from German occupation by the British
Grenadier Guards of the
Guards Armoured Division, as well as elements of the American
82nd Airborne Division in September 1944. The city was later used as a springboard for
Operation Veritable, the invasion across the Rhine River by Allied Troops.
Post-war period From 1946 to 1948
Mariënbosch concentration camp, near Nijmegen, was used to house German nationals who were to be deported from the Netherlands. On 23 February 1981, the Nijmegen police department and the
Dutch Army stormed the
Piersonstraat and Zeigelhof, a squatted housing block in the city centre of Nijmegen. Using 200 riot vans, three
Leopard 1s, three
armoured personnel carriers, a helicopter, 1,200 policemen, and 750 members of the armed forces, they evicted the squatters and demolished the block, while clouding the entire area in teargas and
CS gas. This received enormous backlash in local politics. While the city government wanted the squatters out to build a parking garage, most of the population wanted affordable housing to be built in the area. The
city council was largely dominated by left-wing and progressive parties such as the
Green Party,
Democrats 66,
Socialist Party, and
Labour. At times Nijmegen has been the only major city in the Netherlands with a solely left-wing government, and received the nickname '
Havana on the Waal'. Nijmegen celebrated its 2000th year of existence in 2005. In November 2005, the city centre of Nijmegen was the site of the assassination of political activist
Louis Sévèke by a former activist, Marcel Teunissen, who was arrested in 2007 in Spain and extradited to the Netherlands. Teunissen was also accused of bank robbery. He committed his acts out of revenge for a forcible eviction from the squatter scene by Sévèke. == Geography ==