Heerlen has long neglected a large part of its past. Most attention has always been paid to the city’s thriving Roman times.
And of course to the period when the coal mines flourished. But the more than 1500 years between Romans and coal mines is never told.
Medieval past
And that is not right, says former headmaster Egidius Weerts. He does not get bored of the city’s medieval past, which also turns out to be an extremely fascinating story. Because in the Middle Ages Heerlen was a kind of mini town: around the Pancratius Church were the still existing Schelmenttoren and a few dozen houses. Surrounding it were defensive walls and moats. “The Roman period, which is rightly commemorated a lot, lasted 350 years. The state mines have been here for 75 years. But the period in between has become the stepchild”, Weerts sighs, pointing to the still existing buildings from the Middle Ages.
vile mentors
What is still visible are the Schelmenttoren, which Weerts prefers to refer to as the prison tower because people were locked up in prisons here. Initially, the tower was a noble residential tower. The Pancratius Church is also still there. In previous centuries, rooms were set up here where residents who lived outside the fortress walls could take shelter if a siege was imminent. The current church tower had a military function as a defense structure.
Only a tiny piece of the former fortress wall remains in the dean’s garden. Weerts: “The Heerlen fortress died a soft death. After the 80-year war, Heerlen lost its function as a fortress. The States General therefore no longer made money available to maintain the fort. In the centuries that followed, the inhabitants canals are going to be filled in and the gates are going to break down.Big pieces of the city wall were demolished in the 1960s.”
Creating awareness
Egidius Weerts hopes that Heerlen will become aware of this history. He would like the municipality to make the prison tower accessible to the public. “If no one tells the story about the Middle Ages, it no longer exists,” he says. His publication ‘Herle. Des Heerlen Vestigheyt endegevenckenisse’ in the bookshop.