Venlo, tourist information

Venlo City Hall

Venlo is a pleasant city with a historic city center in Limburg, the city has many facilities, for example you can enjoy shopping and enjoy the many heritage that the city has. The city has more than 39 inhabitants. Venlo is also easy to reach. We definitely recommend the city to visit once

Romer House in Venlo

Do you like Heritage? Then you should go to Venlo once, yes the city has only 99 monuments, but they are beautiful monuments. The city has a historic character, even though it suffered a lot of damage in the Second World War, so you will also find many interesting new buildings in the city center. We will come back to this later.
Venlo has traditionally been a fortified city, you don't see that clearly anymore, if you want to know what a fortified city means, visit our fortified cities page: Fortified towns
The city is quite old, it is believed that 50 BC. – 70 AD. people already lived there and this was apparent from various finds dating from that time.

In the Middle Ages Venlo was a good trading city, you can perhaps compare it with the German cities of Cologne and Spiers. These cities were very important in the Middle Ages. In the year 1481 Venlo became a member of the Hanseatic League, the Hanse was already less important at that time, but Venlo was happy with the status. To find out more about the Hanseatic League, go to our Hanseatic Cities page: Hanseatic cities. When Venlo became a member of the Hanze, Venlo was at its peak.

In the 17th century Venlo was in Spanish hands, the city was part of the southern Netherlands. In the year 1795, Venlo was conquered by the French. After the French had left Venlo, Venlo ended up in the new province of Limburg. that was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

After the Belgian Revolt which took place in 1830, the whole of Limburg joined Belgium. During the peace settlements in London, Venlo came back to the Netherlands.
Halfway through the 19th century, the city walls of Venlo were demolished.

At the end of the Second World War, Venlo suffered a lot of damage, partly because the front line lay through Venlo for three months. In October 1944 Venlo was hardly hit, but that changed when the battle fronts approached Limburg. During heavy bombardments carried out by the Allies, the city center was partly destroyed.

Grote Kerkstraat in Venlo

Venlo is a tourist attraction. This is also because there are many beautiful buildings in the city and there are cozy places. Some examples are the beautiful town hall which dates from the year 1597, the St-Jacobs church is also nice to see, this church dates from the year 1500. We are not there yet! Another building that you must have seen is Huize Ottenheym, this is a very beautiful historic building, of course there are many more buildings to admire

Sint Jorisstraat / Peperstraat in Venlo

Venlo for shopping enthusiasts? Yes, the city has many pleasant shopping streets.

In the shopping streets of Venlo, there is something for everyone. There are small unknown chains but also large well-known retail chains. You can actually find everything in Venlo.

Some examples of shopping streets in velo include:
the Vleesstraat is actually the largest shopping street in Venlo. Then we have the Maastaart. The Market is also a well-known street. there are many more shopping streets to discover.

Venlo:

shopping evening: Thursday Every Sunday shopping Sunday

Keulsepoort, Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo

Venlo has various activities. You can visit museums here, but you can also enjoy an evening at the theater. Rather not feel like going to a museum or theater, for example, you can also go to the cinema.

City park at the Kop van De Weerd in Venlo

Parks and nature are also sufficiently present in Venlo.

The city has a number of parks, the Beatrix Park is an example of this. Otherwise, come and enjoy yourself at the Maas, then you can go to De Oude Beemden. A little further outside Venlo you will find the Heronger Buschberge und Wankumer Heide in Germany.

Steenstraat in Venlo

You can also reasonably walk in Venlo.

You can go to the many entertainment venues. In Venlo you will find many cafes and bars. You can also have fun at a disco, for example. if you want to visit something else, you can go to a small stage where nice bands often perform.