Nijmegen - Valkhof

On the north side of Nijmegen lies the Valkhof, an attractive park on a low hill above the Waal, on the site of an imperial stronghold built by Charlemagne in 768 which under the Saxon, Frankish and Hohenstaufen emperors was frequently the seat of the imperial court. Here the Empress Theophano, wife of Otto II, died in 991, and here in 1165 Henry VI, son of Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy, was born. The name Valkhof is probably derived from the falcons which Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious kept here for hunting in the nearby imperial forest.

Of the original stronghold there remain only the palatine chapel of St Nicholas (consecrated by Pope Leo III in 799), a building of great architectural interest, and, southeast of this, the ruins of a Romanesque apse (St Maartenskapel) which is thought to date from the time of Frederick Barbarossa (1155). From the chapel there is a fine view over the Waal plain.