Holiday apartment in Vaals: culture, forests and the Drielandenpunt

Vaals combines cultural history, forests and a cross-border landscape within a small area. The historic villagescape has protected villagescape status. More than 160 listed monuments shape Vaals, mostly in the Aachen-Liège Baroque style, which is unique in the Netherlands. Near the highest point of Vaalserberg lies the Drielandenpunt, where the borders of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet.

Historic villagescape and culture

At Markttapijt Square, everyday life combines with an unusual design. The Vaals’er Markttapijt is a market square made of concrete paving stones featuring the multicoloured design of a woven cloth. The square includes a fountain area with 44 nozzles; it also provides space for events and the weekly market. The present-day town hall was built in 1765 by Johann Arnold von Clermont and his wife Maria Elisabeth Sophie Emminghaus. Von Clermont established it as a cloth factory and partly as a residence and office.

Museum Vaals displays more than 200 church and monastery figures, as well as other religious art from the Neo-Gothic period between 1850 and 1920. The Neo-Romanesque monastery chapel was built in 1908 on the commission of the Camillian Fathers and was designated a listed monument in 1995 because of its cultural-historical and architectural value. In the museum, visitors walk through the nave towards the altar accompanied by Gregorian chant.

The historic villagescape also includes the U-shaped Vaalsbroek building complex, constructed in 1739 on the site of a late-medieval castle, the associated Vaalsbroek Mill and the mausoleum of the Von Clermont family. Sint-Pauluskerk is a three-aisled Neo-Gothic cross basilica with a tall tower at the right corner of the front façade. It is regarded as a characteristic work by the architect Johannes Kayser (1842–1917), inspired by North German Brick Gothic. De Kopermolen was built in 1736 by Lutherans from the Aachen region and is now a centre for art and culture in a former Evangelical Lutheran church. Exhibitions, concerts and municipal receptions take place there.

The Hervormde Kerk was built onto a Romanesque sandstone tower in 1671. A former medieval church served both Catholic and Protestant worship simultaneously from 1649 to 1671. De Klèng Wach is a former customs office dating from around 1890, furnished with photographs, maps and boundary stones. Next to the former church, a memorial commemorates the victims of war and the Nazi era in Vaals; where known, it bears the names of all murdered Jewish residents of Vaals. The oldest reliably documented traces of Jewish life in Vaals date back to 1737.

Vaalserberg, forests and the three-country landscape

Vaalserberg reaches 322.5 metres above Amsterdam Ordnance Datum (NAP). Its vegetation resembles a continuation of Vijlenerbos: tall conifers and large bracken ferns grow on soft forest soil. There are numerous hiking routes on Vaalserberg. The forests and the area around the Drielandenpunt are freely accessible to visitors. The Wilhelminatoren offers views across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and features a skywalk at a height of 35 metres. In its present form, it reopened in 2011.

Hiking routes and special experiences

Several independent experiences are available for different day plans. The Rundwandeling Joods Vaals is an easy 3.6-kilometre hiking route. The Rundum Kasteel Vaalsbroek route starts at Kasteel Vaalsbroek and follows hiking junctions into the hilly landscape behind the estate. Its changes in elevation open up views across the hill country along the way. Vindplaats Vaals – De munt van Von Clermont offers an on-site app experience with the virtual archaeologist Archie.

Your ideal base in Vaals

When choosing your holiday apartment or holiday home in Vaals, you can first decide what you would like to focus on: village scenery, museums and events versus a stay amid forests, higher elevations and hiking routes. The easy 3.6-kilometre route and the hike through the hilly landscape offer different types of terrain for your planning. This allows you to choose your accommodation based on the experiences that interest you most in Vaals.

Other places for planning your trip: Vijlen, Lemiers.

For the higher-level travel overview: Vaals.