Close your eyes and give your imagination free rein as you wander through Stevensweert. If you listen carefully, you might just hear the clash of arms or soldiers' cries echo through the streets, or perhaps a messenger galloping past on horseback. After all, Stevensweert, now known as a centre of water sports, used to be an important fortress town. In the distant past, locked gates and armed sentries would have prevented you from entering. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. Stevensweert is open to all now, inviting you to enter and admire its splendours.

History Stevensweert and the neighbouring town of Ohé en Laak are located on the "Island in the Meuse", between the River Meuse and the Old Meuse. The fertile clay drew settlers to this area as far back as the 13th century. Stevensweert's history as a fortress town began in 1633, during the Eighty Years' War, when the Dutch struggled to free themselves from Spanish rule. Spanish troops were driven from Limburg in 1632, but they mounted a counter-attack a year later and succeeded in occupying the strategically important Island in the Meuse. It was the Spanish who turned Stevensweert into a fortress town, which they called " '"t Fort S. Stevensweert". They constructed the town's defence works after the gunpowder revolution. Stone walls offered inadequate protection against cannon fire, whereas broad earthen embankments could easily absorb the projectiles. Stevensweert was thus surrounded by earthworks, and not the stone walls that protected medieval fortresses like Zons.

The fortifications of Stevensweert, which was inhabited mainly by soldiers, consisted of two earthen ramparts. The inner rampart around the fortress had seven projecting bastions. It was itself surrounded by a ditch with five detached outworks (ravelins). The outer rampart encircled the ditch. The fortress could only be entered through two gates, the Maaspoort (the main entrance on the river side) and the Veldpoort.

The Spanish gave Stevensweert its unique star-shaped pattern of streets, which has survived until today. Houses were demolished to make way for the new ground plan, constructed according to strict geometrical rules. At the centre of the plan was the Hoofdwacht (main guardhouse); all of the town's streets run in a star- shaped pattern from that point to the bastions and ravelins, like the spokes of a wheel. This pattern has been preserved, A stone in the pavement in ftont of the Hoofdwacht marks the spot that once was the very heart of the fortress. When the Eighty Years' War came to an end in 1648, the Spanish occupiers were loathe to leave Stevensweert. They remained until 1702, when they were Finally driven out by Dutch troops. The battle raged for two days; half the houses in the fortress were burned to the ground and Walburg Castle sustained heavy damage. The Dutch garrison built an extra five outer bastions to strengthen the fortifications. The troops left in 1765, and the Dutch State gave the fortifications to the town on loan, on the proviso that they should not be altered. Later, Napoleon took note of the fortress Stevensweert, recognising its tremendous strategic importance. He planned to extend and modernise the fortifications, but was prevented from doing so by his defeat at Waterloo. Slowly but surely, Stevensweert, like other fortress towns, lost its strategic significance. In 1874 the State sold the fortifications to the town, which ordered the walls levelled and the ditches filled in.