Crapuul - Monument

STOKSTRAAT QUARTER

1840-1973

The Stokstraatkwartier Monument Foundation, currently being established, aims to realize a monument in the Stokstraatkwartier that makes visible and keeps alive the unique history of this neighborhood during the era of industrialization. Due to the extensive restoration of the neighborhood, completed in 1973, this history was rendered invisible, only to resurface in the book 'Crapuul. Chronicle of a slum' (Crapuul. Chronicle of a Slum) from 2022. The monument will be a visualization of the story of 'Crapuul'. It seeks to bring the history of the slum, which the neighborhood was for nearly a century and a half, to the attention of everyone visiting the now-beautiful Stokstraatkwartier in a poignant and substantive manner.
Slums like the Stokstraatkwartier originated during the early industrialization of Maastricht. However, the former residents have not been honored for their role in that special period in the city's history; instead, they were and are dismissed as social outcasts, a term quickly translated colloquially as 'crapuul' (scum). Moreover, attention should also be paid to the fact that it is these former residents who have preserved the neighborhood by signing themselves to their fate, despite under much protest. Had they left, it would have led to vacancy, further dilapidation, and demolition. In that case, the monumental Stokstraat Quarter could never have grown into the first old city district in the world to be restored.
With the book 'Crapul. Chronicle of a slum' by Frank Bokern, the former residents of the Stokstraat Quarter have been given a platform, and their story has finally been told. The monument that the foundation intends to realize will be a visualization of the story of 'Crapuul', condensed into a powerful line of poetry by visual artist and poet Maarten van den Berg. The foundation of the Stichting Monument Stokstraatkwartier io was laid by entrepreneurs and residents of the current Stokstraat Quarter. In the autumn of 2025, a working group was formed consisting of Antoine van Veggel, Willemina Brainich, and Peter Pluijmen, supplemented by Frank Bokern and Maarten van den Berg. The plan is to unveil the monument in the course of 2027.