History

a jigsaw puzzle from the past – the flag and coat of arms of Voeren -

the dialect of the Voer-region

The part of Europe to which the Voer-region belongs, has been coveted by people since prehistoric days. The soil, the landscape, the presence of much water and the location near the rivers Meuse and Rhine, will have contributed to this attraction. Thousands of years before Christ our prehistoric ancestors used the flintstone which was abundantly present. The Romans exploited one, possibly even two, large villas and the Francian and Carolingian (or Carlovingian) kings kept a royal farm here. Our region was in great demand and this created much tension between East- and West Francia and led to many a quarrel between the local feudal lords.

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The Steenboschapel was constructed with reused Roman building material	Roman pottery

When duke John I of Brabant won the Battle of Woeringen (5 June 1288), our area was finally won over to the west. We were ruled, as ”Countries of Overmaze” (i.e. across the Meuse)  from Brabant, leaving the princedom of Liège behind. This took us into the Burgundian influence sphere and that of the Low Countries of emperor Charles V and his Habsburgian successors. But under the Spanish rule we found ourselves once again in the middle of the battlefield in the fight with the Dutch who had made Maastricht a garrison town.

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