Valkhof Park. The Valkhof is a park in Nijmegen in the Dutch province of Gelderland, on the edge of the center on a small hill overlooking the Waal. It is not clear where the name comes from. It is alleged that Louis the Pious kept falcons in the courtyard of the court; others see it as corruptions of Frankenhof, Vahalenhof or even Waalhof. The park is directly connected via a footbridge to the Kelfkensbos square, under which lies a parking garage and to which Museum Het Valkhof is located, with the Hunner Park behind it. The park has been known in recent years as the main location of the De Affair music festival. In 2007, that festival introduced a stage roof that was specially made to measure for the Barbarossa ruin. Before the common era, the moraine in the river country was already inhabited, as evidenced by archaeological finds from the late Bronze Age, but the inhabitants were expelled by the Romans, who built a castrum there, which probably existed from 12 BC. until the Batavian Revolt in 69 - 70 AD. Tacitus tells how Julius Civilis destroyed his own castle by fire and retreated to the Betuwe. Finds of Roman remains indicate that Romans must have lived there until the fourth century, even though there probably was no Roman fortress. Because Charlemagne is said to have built a palace near Nijmegen, the city of Nijmegen is sometimes referred to as the imperial city. Charlemagne was there on Easter in 777 and several times between 804 and 814. He probably even lived there at the time. In 806 he had the division of his empire between his sons Charles, Louis and Pepin decreed. In 838 the next division of the empire between Lothair I and Charles the Bald took place there. n 911 the Carolingian family house died out, but the emperors who subsequently ruled the German Empire continued to visit the Kaiserpfalz repeatedly for acts of government, until in 1047 during a revolt against Emperor Henry III. was burned down by Godfrey with the Beard. In the following century, the emperors only briefly visited Nijmegen to continue their journey to Utrecht. Between 1152 and 1155 Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa built ramparts and walls around Nijmegen, and he restored the castle to its former glory. When Frederick II and his son Conrad were deposed from the throne by Pope Gregory IX, Count Otto II of Guelders took advantage of this to seize the imperial castle. Roman King William II of Holland wanted to assert his rights to the castle, but was unable to repay the expenses Count Otto had incurred. Thus William II pledged the palace and the city of Nijmegen with its dependencies for 16000 marks of silver to Count Otto, until this sum had been repaid by the Roman king. However, the city remained an imperial city and therefore under the protection of the German Empire. William II was a guest at the castle and he gave permission to rebuild the Kerspelkerk, which stood outside the ramparts, within the ramparts. This later became the Sint-Stevenskerk. From the 13th century, the counts of Gelre expanded the fortification of the Valkhofburcht. This is how the castle complex was created from 1450-1500 as can be seen on many maps and prints. As late as 1769, new rooms for the Prince-Stadtholder were built on the second floor. However, she moved in under completely different circumstances than foreseen. Due to the civil strife at the end of the 18th century between the prince-minded and patriots, William V in 1786 considered it advisable to stay outside The Hague for a while. He chose Nijmegen, where the viscount was kind to the stadholder's house. On September 11, 1787, a large Prussian army led by the Duke of Brunswijk arrived at the castle, which the next day with troops stationed in Ooij, Persingen and Nijmegen advanced to Holland. Yet all this was the beginning of the end. In 1794 the French penetrated as far as Maas and Waal: at the castle, under the leadership of Frederik van York, meetings were held whether the city should be defended. On October 27, the French launched an attack on the outposts at Neerbosch. On November 2, the prince came by with his son. The administrators and magistrates left the city on November 5, partly for administrative reasons, partly out of cowardice. The French then shelled the city with large artillery, during which fire broke out in the city and the castle was heavily or slightly damaged. On November 8, the garrison left the city and the French entered. The population seemed content because the defenders had misbehaved. Not only would it cost a lot of money to restore the castle, it was also a reminder of the loathed prince-stadholder and age-old princely greatness in the new democratic age. All in all, the Landdag decided in August 1795 to adopt a proposal from the Veluwe quarters to demolish the building complex and to keep only the two chapels, the Sint Nicolaaskapel and part of the Sint Maartenkapel. Zutphen's quarters voted against and delegates from Nijmegen attempted to propose at least to keep the Giant Tower, the Hofpoort and the ring walls, because no costs had to be spent on this, but in vain. Thus the complex was sold on 9 February 1796 for NLG 90400, and traders could reuse the precious tuff with which it was built for buildings in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the country. When it was demolished in 1797, however, it was neglected to make a floor plan of the building complex, so that only notes and pictures can be used to reconstruct what it looked like. After the demolition, the vacated site was raised, so that the remaining archaeological treasures are well preserved, and it was turned into a park.