Jeker River and Beguinage Quarter, Tongeren

The Jeker (French: Geer or Jaer; Walloon: Djer; Latin: Jecora; Maastricht: Eker) is a river that originates in the Belgian Lens-Saint-Servais near Borgworm, flows through a large part of Haspengouw and near the Dutch city of Maastricht flows into the Meuse (coordinates: 50° 51′ N, 5° 42′ E). Near Tongeren and Bitsingen (French: Bassenge) the Jeker crosses the Dutch-French language border. The Jeker is approximately 55 km long. Particularly near the mouth of the Meuse, the Jeker valley has fairly steep slopes, in some cases covered with slope forests. The largest difference in height (near Bassenge) is 75 meters.

There were already beguines in Tongeren before 1239. The ladies who chose neither marriage nor monastic life settled permanently on a walled site at the Moerenpoort. In the Sint-Catharina Beguinage, the ‘ladies’ built an independent life. At its peak in the early 18th century, the beguinage had over 300 beguines and 100 houses. But during the French Revolution in 1798, the tide turned. The beguinage was expropriated and a number of houses and walls were integrated into the urban environment over time. Today, the cobbled streets, picturesque squares, beguine houses and religious buildings of the Tongeren beguinage still exude a subdued atmosphere. This fairy-tale ‘mini-city in the city’ is rightly a UNESCO world heritage site.

beautiful path through the park - for those who dare via stepping stones - and along and through historic Tongeren