Free Walking Tour Nijmegen: Walls, Church and River

Nijmegen Walking Tour Stops, from Park Towers to the Waal

1. 1

   Kronenburgerpark and Kruittoren

   

   Start where Nijmegen's medieval wall still stands. Kronenburgerpark lies close to the station and the Lange Hezelstraat, and where the park meets the Parkweg you see what is left of the old ramparts, anchored by the Kruittoren, the Powder Tower. It is about thirty metres tall and rises from a remnant of the old town moat. It was built in 1425 and 1426 as part of the second city wall, exactly where that wall turned a corner.

   Look for two more wall towers in the park, the St. Jacobstoren and De Roomse Voet. Until 1887 a post mill called 'Sans souci', meaning 'without worry', stood on top of the St. Jacobstoren. The city fought its owner for seven years to have it removed; in the end a storm in 1887 tore off one of its sails, and the municipality could finally clear it for the new Parkweg. The mill lives on in a gable stone on the corner building of Parkweg and Van Berchenstraat, near the tower, with the mill shown at the top.

   That any of this survives is close to luck. Nijmegen lost its status as a fortress town under the Fortifications Act of 1874, and from 1876 the walls came down to make room for the city to grow. In 1880 the Utrecht garden architect Hendrik Copijn proposed a park here that would have removed the entire wall; his plan failed. Leopold Rosseels from Leuven won approval instead but died before work began, so his brother Liévin laid out the park in 1881 and 1882. The architect Pierre Cuypers, who restored the Kruittoren between 1878 and 1883, advised him and made the decisive case for keeping the wall inside the park. The dry moat became the pond you walk past, and the Parkweg got its name because of the park.

   Everything here is free and open at any hour, so take a slow lap past all three towers. From here it is 650 m, about 10 minutes, into the old centre and the Grote Markt.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Website

   rijksmonumenten.nl ↗

   Location

   Kronenburgerpark and Kruittoren on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Mariken van Nieumeghen Statue

   On the Grote Markt, find the bronze figure before the square pulls your attention elsewhere. This is Mariken van Nieumeghen, heroine of a story from the early sixteenth century: a prose text from the Low Countries built in the shape of a miracle play. Nobody knows who wrote it.

   Why her, and not a king or a bishop? The answer is in her name: Mariken of Nijmegen carries the city with her. The sculptor Vera Tummers-van Hasselt cast the figure, and the city placed it on its main square, where you can see it for free at any hour. The tale itself had nearly vanished until an article by Prudens Van Duyse in 1840 brought it back into view, so this bronze is the latest chapter of a very old, anonymous book.

   When you have had your look, Sint-Stevenskerk is one street away: 100 m, a one minute walk.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Mariken van Nieumeghen Statue on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Sint-Stevenskerk

   

   Locals mostly just say Stevenskerk. Officially it is the Grote of Sint-Stevenskerk, the oldest and largest church in the centre of Nijmegen. It sits on a small rise called the Hundisburg, one of the seven hills the city is built on and the last spur of the push moraine. When building began in 1254, this was the westernmost tip of the town.

   The church owes its site to medieval finance. In 1247 Willem II of Holland pledged Nijmegen and its surroundings to Count Otto II of Guelders as security for a loan that was never repaid. Up at the Valkhof stood the Gertrudiskerk, traditionally held to be the city's first parish church, founded in the seventh century during the missionary campaign of Bishop Kunibert of Cologne. No old maps or excavated remains prove it existed, only mentions in surviving writings. For strategic reasons it had to go, and Otto II gave the land on the Hundisburg for a new church. A small Gertrudis chapel replaced the old church at the Valkhof and was itself pulled down a few centuries later.

   Read the walls as you walk around. The first builders used a lot of tuff stone in a mostly Romanesque style; later extensions turned Gothic, and that is the character the church has today. Its oldest part was consecrated on 7 September 1272, or a year later by other accounts, by Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Cologne. The Holy Sepulchre Chapel still holds a relic of him.

   Going in is free and worth half an hour, above all for the Holy Sepulchre Chapel and that link to Albertus Magnus. From here it is 710 m, about 10 minutes, down to The Bastei; on the way you pass the National Bicycle Museum Velorama.

   Local name

   Grote of Sint-Stevenskerk

   Hours

   Daily 10:00–17:00 (subject to change due to events/rentals; tower climb seasonal Apr–Sep/Nov)

   Price

   Free admission to church; tower climb 5.00 EUR adult, 2.00 EUR children (7-12), free children under 7

   Location

   Sint-Stevenskerk on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   The Bastei City Wall

   

   On the Waalkade, the river front, a sixteenth century defensive tower holds Museum De Bastei, an experience museum that opened in May 2018. The name comes from the type of fortification: a bastei is a horseshoe shaped defensive tower, invented in the sixteenth century by the German artist Albrecht Dürer.

   This one is the Stratemakerstoren. Inside you see what remains of it: two casemates with a vaulted walkway between them, pierced with loopholes. The entrance building stands on the Lange Baan at the foot of the Valkhof, and an underground section links it to the tower, with archaeological remains shown exactly where they were found.

   The museum's theme is the relationship between Nijmegen, the river Waal and the surrounding nature through the centuries, from the forming of the landscape to the present. A hall called Oergrond explains how the push moraine and the river landscape came about, which puts the hill under Sint-Stevenskerk into context, and 'Schatkamer van de Rivier' shows the animals of the region. Behind it all sits the largest natural history collection in Gelderland, most of it kept in the historic Canisius College on the Berg en Dalseweg.

   This is the one stop with an admission charge. It is worth the ticket if you like archaeology and landscape history and want the story of the river and the walls in one place; short on time, look at the tower from the Waalkade and walk on. Hunner Park is 360 m away, about 6 minutes.

   Local name

   De Bastei

   Hours

   Daily 10:00–17:00 (closed Dec 25, Jan 1, King's Day, 4Daagse Friday; Dec 24 & 31 closes at 15:00)

   Price

   15.00 EUR adult, 8.50 EUR youth (4-17), 43.00 EUR family card, 8.50 EUR CJP/students, free for Museumkaart and children 0-3

   Website

   debastei.nl ↗

   Location

   The Bastei City Wall on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Hunner Park

   

   Hunner Park sits on the edge of the push moraine left by the Saale glaciation, on a spot once called the Hoenderberg, where a small fort once stood. Like Kronenburgerpark, it grew out of the demolition of the city walls: it was created between 1876 and 1884, after plans for a villa district here gave way to a design by Liévin Rosseels, the same man who laid out the park where you began. On one side the city wall was kept, and a monumental footbridge crosses the park.

   The park you walk through is half its original size. When the approach ramp to the Waal bridge was built in 1935 and 1936, the park was cut in two and a large round traffic square went in, first named Keizer Lodewijkplein after Louis the Pious and renamed Keizer Traianusplein in 1956. The present layout is by garden architect Klaas Cornelis van Nes.

   Look out for the Belvédère tower, and below it, by the Waal bridge on the Voerweg, the city's coat of arms laid out in flowers. On the Kelfkensbos side stands a kiosk that Jan Jacob Weve built in 1911 as a tram shelter. From the early 1960s until 2012 Mathurin Moreau's sculpture group The Four Seasons stood by the wall here; it had been a gift to the city in 1889, and in 2013 it returned to its original place on the Nassausingel.

   Museum Het Valkhof is right by the park if you have energy for one more visit. To close the loop, walk 1320 m, about 17 minutes, back to Kronenburgerpark and Kruittoren.

   Hours

   24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Hunner Park on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk Nijmegen

The full loop is short, but you can trim it to fit your time or your interest in museums.

Free outdoor loop

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For anyone who wants the whole circuit without a ticket. Walk all five stops, look at The Bastei from the Waalkade instead of going in, and visit the church for free. Pure walking time stays at 44 min; nothing on this version charges admission unless you climb the church tower.

Centre to the river

Stops: 2, 3, 4, 5

For visitors already in the old town who don't need to return to the station side. Start at the Grote Markt and end at Hunner Park: 1170 m and about 17 minutes of walking. Admission applies only at The Bastei.

One hour near the station

Stops: 1, 2, 3

For a short stopover. The wall towers, the Mariken statue and the church are all free, and the walk between them is 750 m, about 11 minutes. You finish at Sint-Stevenskerk in the heart of the old town.

How Long the Nijmegen Loop Takes

Pure walking time on the full loop is 44 min. Add a slow lap of Kronenburgerpark, a few minutes at the statue, half an hour in the church, a good hour and a quarter inside The Bastei and a quarter of an hour in Hunner Park, and you are out for about three hours.

Skip the museum and the loop takes about two hours. The centre to the river version runs to about two and a half hours with The Bastei, and the short version near the station fits into about an hour.

Before You Set Off in Nijmegen

• Start and finish: Kronenburgerpark and Kruittoren, where the loop also ends. You can join at any stop, but this order is the recommended one.
• Getting there: Arriving by train, you are already close: Kronenburgerpark lies near the station.
• Time of day: Walk during the day so Sint-Stevenskerk and The Bastei are open; the two parks and the statue are accessible at any hour.
• Admission: The Bastei charges admission and the church tower climb costs a fee. The parks, the statue and the church itself are free.

Common Questions About Walking Nijmegen