Gronsveld

Geschiedenis

Gronsveld is a village in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is part of the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten and situated southeast of the municipality of Maastricht, to which it is bordering.Gronsveld was a separate municipality until 1982, when it was merged with Eijsden. The municipality also included Rijckholt, Eckelrade, Heugem and Honthem.The derivation of the name is uncertain, although it is commonly accepted to be quite literally referring to its evergreen pastures, and indeed the village is favourably situated at the foot of the Margraten Plateau which retains water in its bedrock. This provides for a constant gentle irrigation, and the lush clay soil carried here by the Meuse River is excellent for growing fruit trees.HistoryGronsveld used to be an autonomous county until the end of the ancienne regime at the closing of the 18th century and was part of the imperial circle of Westphalia.Its first and most famous count was Josse Maximilaan van Gronsveld né van Bronckhorst who fought in the Thirty Years' War and invented the Gronsfeld cipher, a substitution cipher.The lords, barons and counts of Gronsfeld had the right to mint their own coins which were frequently banned from circulation elsewhere because of their insufficient weight and/or alloy.