Tongeren travel guide

Tongeren (French: Tongres, German: Tongern) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg in the Flemish region of Belgium. Its claim to be the "oldest town in Belgium", and its famous "Sunday antique and flea market" make the city a popular tourist attraction.

Understand

The city is the capital of both an administrative and a judicial district. The municipality has 31,000 inhabitants (2018) in an area of 87.56 km ². 17,000 people live in the old town. Tongeren is in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. French is also widely spoken as Wallonia including the big city of Liège is nearby. People generally speak at least basic English as well.

History

Archaeologists have found objects in the region dating from between 5300 and 4800 BC, and the oldest remains of buildings are from a Roman camp standing there from 30 BC, which was abandoned after a decade or so to be occupied by the Tungri tribe. It's unclear who the Tungri were; local tribes, Germans coming across the Rhine, or an alliance of these (tungri in Celtic means "companions"). The Romans then named the place Atuatuca Tungrorum - the fortress of the Tungri. In 69-70 AD, local tribes revolted against the Roman rule in an event known as the Revolt of the Batavi. The Romans put down the revolt and burned down the fortress.

With Romans controlling the region, the fortress and town was rebuilt. A road to Cassel (near Paris), an aqueduct, a temple and many commerces were constructed to make it the capital of civitas Tungrorum . Later ramparts and walls were built to protect the prospering city from attacks by Franks and Vandals. In the 4th century also Christianity arrived, and Saint Materne of Cologne set up a diocese seat in the town and converted the population. The diocese would soon be moved to Maastricht and finally to Liège which became the main city of the region and the capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, part of the Holy Roman Empire. Tongeren still remained the second city of the principality, as officially declared in the 1316 Peace of Feixhe, a kind of Magna Carta. A few decades earlier, between 1241 and 1290 a new city wall with six gates and twelve fortified towers had been built.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the region saw many wars between the states in the region despite the neutrality of Liège. The 17th century was marked by peace until the Franco-Dutch War when the French burned most of the city to the ground in 1677. This definitely meant the end of the grand days, and today Tongeren is definitely nothing like the second city in a country. In 1795 Tongeren became part of France, and its status was reduced to a locality in the department of Meuse-Inférieure. After the defeat of Napoleon, in 1815, the parts of France that make up present-day Belgium became part of the Limburg province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Then, in 1839, the southern part of Limburg including Tongeren became part of the new Belgian kingdom and a local administration was set up here.

During the 20th century, Tongeren was occupied by Germans for several years during both world wars and was bombed with V1 bombs in 1944 after being liberated. After the war the city was developed into commercial centre, and with the merger of surrounding municipalities in the 1970s, the city grew both in population and size.

Tourist office

• Toerisme Tongeren, Via Julianus 2, ☏ +32 12 800070, info@toerismetongeren.be. Mon-Fri 08:30-12:00, 13:00-17:00, Sat 10:00-16:00, Sun 10:00-14:00. Tourist information with free Wi-Fi. On facebook.

Get in

Tongres railway station (Photo: Sonuwe, CC BY-SA 3.0)

You can use the route planner at http://delijn.be for routes and schedules for all public transport in Belgium - both for getting to and around Tongeren

By plane

The nearest airports are in Liège and Maastricht. As of early 2023, the former is mostly a cargo airport with some charter flights, whereas the latter also has a few budget flights operated by Ryanair. Brussels airport has a much wider range of flights and destinations.

By car

East from Maastricht 18 km on N79.

South from Liège 31 km on E313 (exit 32) or N20.

North from Hasselt 29 km on E313 or N20.

West from Sint-Truiden 22 km on N79.

West from Brussels 89 km on E40 (exit 29) and N69

By train

Hourly trains from Liège Guillemins take 40 minutes to reach Tongeren. Trains also run hourly from Brussels, taking one hour 50 minutes.

• Tongeren train station (NMBS), Stationsplein 1. Train station with an information and ticket office. It also has a cafeteria and ATM.

By bus

There are buses from Hasselt (line 4), Liège (line 74), Maastricht (line 62) and Sint-Truiden (line 23a).

Get around

By bus

There are four city bus lines, one of which goes to the village of Herstappe. They run from Monday to Saturday. To travel on Sunday, you can call +32 11 850300 to order a bus. A single ticket costs €2.50, and a 24-hr ticket €7.50.

By car

Getting around by car is generally not a problem as there's little traffic and roads are in a good condition. In the old town, streets are narrow and parking are paid. There are three underground parkings in town.

Allego

• operates 27 charging stations (2-11 kW and 22 kW) for electric cars in Tongeren municipality.

By scooter

Vespatoerist, Rutterweg 85, ☏ +32 460 944066. Vespa rental office, with 50 cc and 125 cc engines. On

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