Romans, Relics & Abbeys

Two thousand years in six stops: Roman baths under Heerlen, golden reliquaries in Maastricht, a pilgrim basilica and two living abbeys.

This corner of the Low Countries has been holy ground since the Romans soaked in Heerlen's thermae. Start there — the bathhouse is the best-preserved Roman building in the country — then trace the line of faith through Maastricht's two Romanesque basilicas, the miracle basilica of Meerssen, and the redemptorist abbey of Wittem where pilgrims still queue for Gerardus. End at Rolduc, whose 12th-century crypt is the finest Romanesque room in the Netherlands.