Thorn: the White Village of Limburg Province

One of Thorn's cobblestone streets

Jim and Thieu strolling in the White Village

On our last day in the Netherlands our Dutch friend Thieu took us to Limburg Province's famous White Village, Thorn. The village was founded in the 10th century as Thorn Abbey. The Abbey served as a convent school for unmarried daughters of rich nobility (this type of establishment was called a stift). The women did not take vows, and they lived in luxury…until 1797. That's when the French invaded the country and declared that the Abbey was state property. The wealthy siftdames fled, and Thorn Abbey was demolished. The beautiful Abbey Church is all that remains of the stift.

Thorn's Sint-Michaëlskerk, formerly the Thorn Abbey Church

Thorn Abbey had been the major employer in the area, so the rest of the town fell into poverty after its demise. The impoverished inhabitants of Thorn moved into the large houses that had been abandoned by the stiftdames and their servants. A funny sign at the edge of town explains that after the French introduced a window tax, residents bricked up many of the windows in the big houses to escape paying the extra taxes. To cover the "construction scars" the townspeople whitewashed the brick houses. As a result, Thorn became known as het witte stadje (the white village). 

Thieu pointed out a pair of goat figurines in a store window in Thorn, and explained that Thorn is famous for another reason, too. It's the home of two world famous amateur wind orchestras, The Koninklijke Harmoni and the Harmoni St. Michael. The orchestras are known locally as the bokken (he-goats) and the geiten (she-goats). In 1993 Thorn's geiten won first prize at the World Music Contest, which is held every 4 years in Kerkrade, another Limburg town. The bokken won in 1997.

In Thorn, the bokken and geiten are like clans. Just about every family in town belongs to one side or the other, and membership is hereditary. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s when the musical "clans" were new, competition between the two was fierce. Bokken and geiten didn't dare intermarry! But these days the rivalry has softened, and the two orchestras have joined to run the town's music school. To prevent the old rivalries from resurfacing, they never compete in the same competition on the same day. And every Ascension Day, in May, they play a joint concert together.

Grand Café ‘t Stift

Thorn was pretty deserted on the day that we visited. We walked around enjoying the quaint cobblestone streets until the biting cold got to us. An inviting cafe that we passed, the Grand Café ‘t Stift, advertised Lindeboom beer, a brand that Jim hadn't tasted yet. We stopped in to warm up and drink a glass of this Limburg brew in the gezellig tavern. Lekker. 








We left Thorn and drove back to Maastricht via Maaseik, a Belgian city known for being the hometown of the 15th century painters Jan and Hubert Van Eyck. A statue in Maaseik's handsome Maartplatz square commemorates the famous brothers. 

In Maastricht Thieu's wife Ria joined us for a farewell dinner at our favorite restaurant, Cafe Rilette. A very nice way to end our last day in Maastricht.

A gezellig farewell dinner at Cafe Rilette