Nimeguen
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town in Holland; province of Guelderland; on the Waal river; 73 miles E. of Rotterdam. It is built on the slope of the Hoenderberg, "Hill of the Huns," on which the Romans formed the permanent camp of Noviomagum; and some of its streets are steep and narrow, but others are broad and handsome. On a neighboring height stood till 1796 a castle, said to have been founded by Cæsar and inhabited by Charlemagne; and toward the brow of this height there still stands a little sixteen-sided Romanesque baptistery of the 12th or 13th century. Nimeguen retains its Renaissance town hall (1554), adorned with medallions of German emperors, and the fine Gothic church of St. Stephen (dating from 1272). The manufactures include tobacco, eau de Cologne, metal goods, beer, etc. It is an important trading center for cattle and grain. Nimeguen is celebrated in history for its great peace congress, which on Aug. 12, 1678, concluded a treaty between France and Holland, on Dec. 13, between France and Spain, and on Feb. 5, 1679, between Austria and France. Pop. about 60,000. NÎMES, or NISMES (nēm), a city of southern France, capital of the department of Gard, 62 miles N. W. of Marseilles; is an episcopal see; and consists of an old central quarter surrounded by handsome boulevards, beyond which are the modern quarters. Its manufactures are chiefly of silk and cotton goods; it has a considerable commerce especially in wine and brandy; and it is the great entrepôt of southern France for raw silk. Nîmes is chiefly remarkable for its Roman remains, including an ancient temple, with 30 beautiful Corinthian columns, now serving as a museum and known as the Maison Carrée; the amphitheater, a circus capable of seating 20,- 000 persons; the temple of Diana; the ancient Tour Magne, on a hill outside of the city, supposed to have been a to have been built by a Greek colony, and was afterward for about 500 years in the possession of the Romans. In the 16th century it became a stronghold of Calvinism, and suffered much during the civil wars, as also by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and during the Revolution; but latterly it has become a busy manufacturing center. It is the birthplace of Daudet and Guizot. Pop. about 80,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 the town had about 60,000 people and its medieval fabric intact; today Nijmegen (the modern spelling; the province is Gelderland) has roughly 180,000 inhabitants and a university, founded in 1923 as the Catholic University of Nijmegen and now Radboud University. The Second World War fell on it hard: American bombers struck the city centre by mistake on 22 February 1944, killing several hundred people and wrecking much of the old town, and in September 1944 the Waal bridge was the object of heavy fighting during Operation Market Garden. The Gothic St Stephen's church, gutted in the war, was rebuilt, and the little sixteen-sided chapel on the Valkhof still stands as the entry describes. Nijmegen now presents itself as the oldest city in the Netherlands, dating its foundation to the Roman settlement of Noviomagus and celebrating a 2,000th anniversary in 2005.
Written for this edition, 2026.