To spot the Dominican Church, just look for a tall, light-colored gothic church with soaring pointed arches and a massive stained-glass window above a rusty steel entrance, right by a lively plaza filled with people.
Here you are, right beside the legendary Dominican Church! If you were a builder in the 13th century, you’d be amazed at this mighty gothic stone structure towering over the city with its massive pointed windows and battlement-like walls. The church was squeezed in here, a bit hidden and wedged behind other buildings, after some neighborly squabbles about where the Dominicans were allowed to build-certainly not the best real estate negotiation ever! Its exterior, made of creamy sandstone and local stone, looks austere and almost fortress-like, but you can almost sense the drama that once filled these old stones.
The air here would’ve once been thick with incense and the solemn sounds of Dominican monks chanting prayers. Picture this: sometime around the year 1265, the first monks-led, legend has it, by a saint named Winand-began building this very church. By 1294 it was complete, just in time for the medieval world’s ups and downs. The Dominicans, famous for their preaching, study, and a love of books, made this place their spiritual and intellectual home. They weren’t just quiet monks, either. In the 16th century, when Europe was turning upside down with wars and religious revolutions, this church managed to narrowly escape a destructive iconoclastic riot in 1566, only to be plundered a decade later by German mercenaries-imagine the crash of doors and shouts of angry soldiers echoing beneath the vaulted ceilings! Still, the resilient brothers returned, rebuilt, and even expanded. Local heroes like Franciscus Romanus invested piles of money to restore the altars and bring treasures-including relics from faraway abbeys.
Inside, if you wander in today, you’ll find an astonishing sight: thousands and thousands of books stacked high within metal shelves that seem to float beneath the soaring gothic arches. There’s even a café nestled in the old sanctuary-so yes, you can literally sip your cappuccino in church without anyone raising an eyebrow! But long before it was voted “the world’s most beautiful bookshop,” this church was a place of resilience and miracles. Some say the very first prior, Saint Winand, was buried in the middle of the church, though no one is entirely sure. During an archaeological dig, dozens of graves were uncovered here, including an ancient one of a man who’d clearly worked very hard his whole life-and maybe not just at prayer.
Look up at the stained-glass windows and imagine processions of Dominicans and laypeople gathering, especially on feast days, singing hymns as the light streamed through. Groups called “brotherhoods” held meetings, whispered prayers, and joined in city processions, hoping for blessings and protection for their families. Over the centuries, the church survived bombardments, an occupation by French revolutionary troops who tossed out the monks and shut down the monasteries, and all sorts of new uses-a parish, a warehouse, a concert hall, an archive depot, a post office, even a bicycle parking lot!
When it was finally restored and reborn as a bookshop in 2007, creative architects carefully designed the huge steel bookshelves so that the grand, airy interior would never feel cramped. In fact, standing here now, you’re beside a building that CNN and The Guardian have called the “coolest” and “most beautiful” bookshop in the world-one whose story is every bit as gripping as any novel inside.
And if you step inside, look to the left and see an ancient wall fresco-one of the oldest in the Netherlands, showing scenes from the life of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Thanks to a little projector magic, you can watch the faded medieval figures come to life. Talk about a plot twist! Only in Maastricht could a gothic monastery become a temple for books, coffee, and centuries of survival. Who says history can’t have a sequel?
