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

Limburg (Netherlands)

Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...

 in The Netherlands.

Since January 1st, 2011 Oost-Maarland is one of the population centres in the Eijsden-Margraten

Eijsden-Margraten

Eijsden-Margraten is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, in the very south of the province of Limburg. It was formed in 2011 from the former municipalities Eijsden and Margraten...

 municipality; before it was in the Eijsden municipality, that on the mentioned date has merged with the neighbouring municipality of Margraten

Margraten

-History:In Margraten is the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Europe's third largest war cemetery for unidentified soldiers who died in World War II. 8,301 soldiers are buried there under long rows of white crosses and stars of David. All graves are adopted by locals, who attend the...

.

Oost-Maarland is situated some 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) southern of the town of Maastricht

Maastricht

Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...

 and some 3 kilometers northern of Eijsden

Eijsden

Eijsden is a place situated in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg. Until January 1st, 2011 it was the main village in a municipality with the same name. On that date this municipality merged with a neighbouring one, which resulted in the new Eijsden-Margraten municipality.Eijsden...

, which is the biggest place in the municipality.

The name

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

Meuse

Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

 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

Augusta of Treviso

Saint Augusta of Treviso, also known as Augusta of Ceneda, Augusta of Tarvisium, or Augusta of Serravalle, is venerated as a virgin martyr....

 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

Oost (Limburg)

Oost is a village in the province of Limburg in The Netherlands.It is the main part of the administrative population centre of Oost-Maarland in the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten....

 once was a seignory

Seignory

In English law, Seignory or seigniory , the lordship remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple....

 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.