Venlo, tourist information

City Hall of Venlo

Venlo is a pleasant city with a historic city center in Limburg, the city has many amenities, for example you can enjoy shopping and enjoy the many heritage that the city has. The city has more than 39, 100 inhabitants. Venlo is also easy to reach. We definitely recommend a visit to the city

Romer House in Venlo

Do you like Heritage? Then you should go to Venlo, yes the city only has 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, which is no longer clearly visible nowadays, if you want to know what a fortified city contains, visit our fortified cities page: Fortified towns
The city is quite old, it is thought that 50 BC. – 70 AD. people already lived there and that was apparent from various finds which date back to 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 Hanze, the Hanze was already less important at that time, but Venlo was happy with the status. To know 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, all of Limburg joined Belgium. After the peace settlements in London, Venlo rejoined 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 barely hit, but that changed when the battle fronts approached Limburg. During heavy bombardments 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 see 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 shopaholics? 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 Markt 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 a museum or theater, you can also go to the cinema, for example.

City park at the head of De Weerd in Venlo

Parks and nature are also sufficiently present in Venlo.

The city has a number of parks, the Beatrixpark is an example of this. Otherwise, come and enjoy 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 walk reasonably well in Venlo.

You can go to the many entertainment venues. In Venlo you will find many cafes and bars. You can also go to a cozy nightclub, for example. if you still want to visit something different, you can go to a small stage where great bands often perform.