This commemorative stone - made by Charles Vos - was placed in 1951 by the priest Bernardus Janssens to commemorate the rebuilding of the presbytery of the OL Vrouwekerk at Plankstraat, where the St. Nicolas church had been until 1837.
The presbytery was totally destroyed by a bomb on 26 July 1942, when an English bomber fleeing from a German fighter dropped his bomb load over Maastricht.
The modern commemorative stone placed during the 1951 reconstruction, showing St Nicholas handing over the renovated presbytery to the Virgin Mary, replaced the chronogram that had stood above the front door before the bombing:
s nICoLaUs Vera VI pULsUs CeDIt s MarIae VIrgInI (St Nicholas, expelled by brute force, makes way for the Virgin Mary, 1837).
That brute force therefore referred to the demolition of the Nicholas Church in 1837, when the neighbouring OL Vrouwekerk became the parish church. This parish transfer is depicted on the modern memorial stone.
St Nicholas Church, 1835 painting by Alexander Schaepkens on the corner of OL Vrouweplein and Plankstraat. The OL Vrouwe basilica is on the right.
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