Fort St. Peter's

At a strategic point on the Sint-Pietersberg lies Fort Sint Pieter. After the French Louis XIV conquered Maastricht in the 17th century, it became painfully clear that Mount St. Peter was of great strategic importance for the defense of the city.
The impressive Fort Sint Pieter was built on it more than three hundred years ago, in order to be able to defend Maastricht from the south. It was city commander Daniël Wolf van Dopff who had a pentagonal fort with twelve gun emplacements built.
It was built of marl and brick, with all kinds of corridors (galleries and casemates) and rooms in the fort, for example for the storage of ammunition. Nevertheless, the French succeeded in capturing the fort again in 1794.
They shot from a blind spot and managed to penetrate all the way into the marl quarries. You can still see the traces of the explosions they caused there in an attempt to completely destroy the fort.
In the end, the destruction had failed, but the underground explosions did the fort no good. In the early 19th century, encouraged by the advance of Napoleon's armies, it was renovated and modernized.
After 1867, the fort lost its military function and was eventually transferred to Natuurmonumenten. They manage the surrounding nature reserve, the Sint-Pietersberg and also the fort.
The fort provides an ideal habitat for wall plants, rare butterflies and it is a wintering place for bats. Every day there are guided tours in the fort and in the marl quarries that lie below.

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