Oost-Maarland

Oost-Maarland
Country	Netherlands
Province	Limburg
Municipality	Eijsden
Population (1 January 2006)	950
Transport
Major roads	A2, Maas

Oost-Maarland is a place, situated in the south-eastern part of the province of Limburg in The Netherlands.

Since January 1st, 2011 Oost-Maarland is one of the population centres in the Eijsden-Margraten municipality; before it was in the Eijsden municipality, that on the mentioned date has merged with the neighbouring municipality of Margraten.

Oost-Maarland is situated some 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) southern of the town of Maastricht and some 3 kilometers northern of Eijsden, which is the biggest place in the municipality.

The name

Entry ramp to monumental farmstead near Oost Castle

Former (farm and) youth inn in Maarland

In fact the name should be "Oost en Maarland", ("Oost and Maarland"), because these are two different hamlets, with their own history, no matter that in administrative sense since a long time already they are handled as one and that there is just one church and one basic school for both; with population numbers of some 600, resp. 300, there is no other way.

Oost and Maarland are situated aside each other, on the same altitude; Oost (despite its nowadays name, which is Dutch for "East") on the western side, near the river Meuse and Maarland just to the east. (In fact the name Oost has nothing to do with location. It is said to be derived from "Augusta". Once Saint Augusta of Treviso was the patron saint of this village, that then was called "Augustakirchen", after the church, that then was there, dedicated to that saint. By the 18th century already the name had been deformed to "Aoust").

History

In history Oost once was a seignory and a municipality of its own. A castle and a (by now folkloristic) citizen soldiery still witness of that.

There is other folklore in this village; like in many other villages in this region, mostly on festival days. In Oost-Maarland some of these are joint and others are separate in each of both hamlets.

Nature

A big part of the former fruit-tree area in Oost has been destroyed in the extraction of grit, which was abundantly present in the soil near the river. By now there's a lot of water around there, some water-recreation and some wild nature.

References

Coordinates: 50°47′41″N 5°42′47″E / 50.79472°N 5.71306°E / 50.79472; 5.71306