NIXICEGEN, NlMEGITEN, the Noviomagum of the Romans (magma or magen being a -Celtic word for a fixed dwelling), called by Tacitus Bcdavorum oppidum, in the middle ages _NUmaga, is the principal city of the district of Nijmegen, or the Betuwe, in the :Netherlands province of Gelderland. Pop. 23,503, of whom three-fourths are Roman Catholic. It it pleasantly situated, 9 m. a. of Arnheim, on the several little hills, on the left bank of the Waal. Several of the streets are steep and narrow, passing up the Hoenderberg (Ilunnerberg, or hill of the Huns), on which the Romans had a permanent camp in order to keep in subjection the country of the Bataviers, which lay between the Rhine and the Waal; others are broad and well built. On a height stood, till 1797, it was demolished by the French, the castle of Valkenburg, said to have been built by Julius Caesar. Here Charlemagne built a palace, and made the castle his residence. The site is now planted with trees, and forms a pleasant public walk overlooking the river and quay. On the brow of the hill there is a little sixteen-sided chapel or baptis tery, which some think was originally a heathen temple of the Bataviers, and converted into a Christian church by Pope Leo III. in 799. On another eminence, where the chateau of the duke of Alva once stood, is a modern tower called Belvidere, from the summit of which there is an extensive view, including the rivers which branch off at the -delta of the Rhine—viz., the Rhine, the Waal, and the Yssel, with the Maas flowing in
the south. Nijmegen is strongly fortified and well garrisoned. The town-house, founded in 1554, is beautifully and antiquely fitted up within, and externally orna mented by several statues of emperors and kings of the Romans. St. Stephen's, or the great church, standing on the highest part of the city, is a handsome Gothic edifice in the form of a Greek cross, and before the reformation contained 30 altars. Nijmegen is a large market for cattle and agricultural produce, especially grain. Beer is extensively brewed, eau de cologne distilled, and there are factories for spinning and weaving; tin goods and earthenware stoves are manufactured.
Nijmegen is celebrated for the great peace congress of the European powers which was held here, aud, Aug. 10, 1678, concluded a treaty between Spain and France; on Sep. 17, between France and the United Netherlands; and between the German empire and France, and the same empire and Sweden, Feb. 5, 1679.