Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands and the first to be recognized as such in Roman times.

[10] The municipality is formed by the city of Nijmegen, incorporating the former villages of Hatert, Hees and Neerbosch, as well as the urban expansion projects in Veur-Lent, Nijmegen-Oosterhout and Nijmegen–Ressen, all situated north of the river Waal.

The city lies a few kilometers from the border with Germany, and to some extent the westernmost villages in the municipality of Kranenburg, Germany, function as dormitories for people who work in the Dutch city of Nijmegen in part due to the immigration of Dutch people from the region who were attracted by the lower house pricing just across the border.

By 69, when the Batavi, the original inhabitants of the Rhine and Meuse (Maas) delta, revolted, a village called Oppidum Batavorum had formed near the Roman camp.

This village was destroyed in the revolt, but when it had ended the Romans built another, bigger camp where the Legio X Gemina was stationed.

In 103, the X Gemina was restationed in Vindobona, now Vienna, which may have been a major blow to the economy of the village around the camp, losing around 5000 inhabitants.

[11] In January 2022, archeologists led by Pepijn van de Geer announced the discovery of an intact 2,000-year-old blue glass bowl with a vertical stripe pattern in Nijmegen.

According to van de Geer, this type of bowl was made by allowing molten glass to cool and harden over a mold.

During the Dutch Revolt, trade came to a halt and even though Nijmegen became a part of the Republic of United Provinces after its capture from the Spanish in 1591, it remained a border town and had to endure multiple sieges.

In 1678 Nijmegen was host to the negotiations between the European powers that aimed to put an end to the constant warfare that had ravaged the continent for years.

There were too many inhabitants inside the walls, but the fortifications could not be demolished because Nijmegen was deemed as being of vital importance to the defence of the Netherlands.

In 1923 the current Radboud University Nijmegen was founded and in 1927 a channel was dug between the Waal and Meuse (Maas) rivers.

On 22 February 1944, Nijmegen was heavily bombed by American planes, causing great damage to the city centre.

The Dutch organization for investigating wartime atrocities, the NIOD, announced in January 2005 that its study of the incident confirmed that it was an accident caused by poor communications and chaos in the airspace.

Using 200 riot vans, three Leopard 1s, three armoured personnel carriers, a helicopter, 1,200 policemen, and 750 members of the armed forces, they evicted the squatters and demolished the block, while clouding the entire area in teargas and CS gas.

At times Nijmegen has been the only major city in the Netherlands with a solely left-wing government, and received the nickname 'Havana on the Waal'.

The lack of north–south oriented mountain ranges in Europe make this area prone to sudden shifts in weather, giving the region a semi-continental climate.

Few Roman remains are visible today; a fragment of the old city wall can be seen near the casino and the foundations of the amphitheatre are traced in the paving of the present-day Rembrandtstraat.

[22] Not many very old buildings are left in town: first the Americans bombed it in February 1944, later the Germans shelled it for about five months after the liberation in September 1944, and finally there were a number of vigorous city planners in the 1950s, 60s and 70s who finished the demolition.

Valkhof hill downtown features a Carolingian chapel (eighth, ninth century AD) and a small remainder of an imperial castle that was demolished in 1798.

[27] Since 2012 the mayor has been Hubert Bruls of the Christian Democratic Appeal party (CDA), the city council approving a third six-year term from 2024.

In 1968, theologians in the Catholic Church issued what is now known as the Nijmegen Statement, demanding sweeping reforms in the Vatican's Holy Office, previously known as The Inquisition, and calling for greater scope for theological inquiry.

Joseph Ratzinger, then a member of the faculty at the University of Tübingen, but later the head of the successor to the Holy Office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and later still Pope Benedict XVI.

The Nijmegen Statement said: "Any form of Inquisition however subtle, not only harms the development of sound theology, it also causes irreparable damage to the credibility of the church".

The national team got celebrated by over a hundred fans and Mayor Hubert Bruls after winning Division B of the 2018 Bandy World Championship.

The three hospitals in the city: Radboud University Medical Center, Sint Maartenskliniek, and Canisius-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis (CWZ); 3.

The river is a busy freight transport route, with barges passing through on the way between the industrial regions of Germany and the docks at Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hook of Holland.

Of note is also Leefwerkschool Eigenwijs, which caters to students from all over the Netherlands who have been repeatedly expelled from "regular" high schools.

Leefwerkschool Eigenwijs has its roots in the local activist movement of the early 1980s and is the only school of its kind recognised in the Netherlands.

The Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov while at Radboud University "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."