Nijmegen, oldest Dutch city*

Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands, with an asterisk: two other cities have been so nominated at different times.

For now, Nijmegen appears to be the oldest proper city that has been mostly continuously settled. * Here's the asterisk:

The "Pillar of the Gods" (godenpijler) found in Nijmegen dates from 17 CE. Nijmegen was certainly important in the Roman empire; a market city. But Nijmegen has been abandoned at least once. When germanic tribes north of the great rivers pushed back the empire in 69-70, they burned the city. It may have been unpopulated for years.

Voorburg is not much of a city now - more like a suburb of Den Haag, but it's still occupied. Its "mijlpaal" (Roman roadside milestone) is not as old as the "godenpijler," though.

Underground work in the year 2007 in Maastricht revealed a Celtic road, potentially 2500 years old. Evidence of older civilization, yes — but Maastricht was never a city (municipium) during the Roman years.

• Note: In the summer of 2010, the chief city archaeologist of the city of Venlo, in the southern province of Limburg, said that archaeological evidence (and a bit of conjecture) proves their city to be older than Nijmegen.

The Nijmegen chief city archaeologist disagreed.