André Rieu Owns His Own Village in Maastricht

André Rieu Owns His Own Little Village

Castle in the scaffolds

April 7, 2013-By Doris Zonneveld: In the meantime André Rieu has amassed his own little district in Maastricht. The world renowned violinist owns no less than 34 properties, one of which is the castle "Huis de Torentjes", six buildings in close proximity to the castle and numerous parcels of land. His castle is being renovated. And that could bring surprises since André’s neighbor once found a real treasure in the cellar.

André owns at least 34 properties in Maastricht

We can justifiably speak about a small real estate empire on the southern slopes of the Saint Peter’s hill in Maastricht. Andre Rieu, who sold 30 million albums and DVD worldwide, has over the years acquired his own little neighborhood. In the center of that, his own mansion, the castle "Huis, de Torentjes." besides the castle he also owns six structures in the near vicinity. One of the structures was previously the the residence of the castle’s caretaker, adorned with  beautiful stairs. 

Rieu also built a studio elsewhere, while another structure was being demolished, but recently has been rebuilt. Possibilities are that son Pierre, the vice-president of Rieu Productions, is living there. For support and as a mainstay André prefers to have him in the neighborhood, just like his other son Marc. He is an artist and that is not exactly earning him a fortune, but reported he lives in the white villa at the base of the castle for free. (Marc has since moved away to another city) In that manner, Marc and Pierre share in the wealth of their parents. André Rieu owns no less than 23 private properties in Maastricht and another 11 designated as commercial, including large land parcels. Thus the violinist owns a large part of his beloved Limburg town where he was born.

Castle "Huis de Torentjes" dates back to 1526, requires a lot of maintenance and that is the reason why the violinist is currently having it totally renovated. The entire castle, up to and including the square tower on the roof is encased in scaffolding, and everyone is very busy, trying to have everything finished before the violinist opens its door this summer to the public. A special Rieu concert arrangement could be purchased for 789 Euros per person, which included a visit to the castle.

It is obvious that André is trying to impress his guests and that he wants his castle to be ready to perfection. Since Rieu’s castle is very old, it may contain some hidden treasures. One of André’s neighbors found a real treasure some years ago underneath the basement stairs. It consisted of a Cologne jar containing 346 golden and 1611 silver coins from a bygone time. And with sewer works on André’s street, they once found an underground limestone wall, a drainage gutter, stone construction elements and two fragments of a gravestone dating back to 1734. They also found rail track remains and a small tunnel for a rail track. It seems that the part of the Saint Peters hill where Rieu now resides was at one time a part of an early sand stone pit. There could even be more hidden treasures in the violinist’s castle or on his properties which these renovations might bring to light.

This summer André will conduct seven concerts on the Vrijthof in Maastricht for the ninth time in a row. Rieu’s tour schedule is filled to the brim. Prior to his Vrijthof series he will be performing in Brazil, Denmark, Chile and Argentina. After his Maastricht concerts he will depart for Mexico, Australia, Turkey and Ireland, with the 2013 concert tour ending in England. For Christmas, he is just like every year, home, but even before the 1st of January there are already concerts scheduled for Germany, followed by Poland, Switzerland and Austria. Everything up until May 2014 has already been confirmed, and then to think that Rieu only plays in the largest stadiums. 

In 2012 half a million people attended a total of 99 concerts by Rieu and his orchestra, which earned him 40 million Euros. Thus he ended up in tenth place of the most money making tours of 2012, a list compiled by the leading American music magazine "Billboard." Rieu remained ahead of world stars like Justin Bieber, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Barbara Streisand.

Rieu’s packed full tour schedule however can also have a downside, because in 2012 he experienced a puzzling phenomenon because he was overworked. He was dealing with a stubborn virus infection on his equilibrium which caused dizziness attacks. He was literally unable to appear on stage. As his son Pierre said: "He does not dare to go on stage." Because of his weakened resistance, he initially was not able to overcome this virus, resulting in cancelled concerts worldwide. In the meantime he has found a way to release his stresses and he seems to be as fit as before. All his hard work is now finally earning him some money. A few years ago, he was on the brink of bankruptcy. That was due to the out of control high costs overrun, and as compared with the tens of millions in revenue, there are also tens of millions in expenses. He also placed his very expensive Stradivarius violin up for collateral. 

 "The public probably did not realize how bad it was" he said later when speaking about this. In 2011 there was again a profit of over 3 million Euros.

Thanks to Ineke for sending this and John Translating it for us.