In the rolling hills of the Flemish Ardennes, Oudenaarde is a lovable town on the River Scheldt that was famed until the 18th century for its high-quality tapestries. Even though the industry died off 300 years ago there are 15 supreme examples of this needlework at the Mou Museum in the 14th-century cloth hall. This …
The little town of Rochefort is wrapped in a loop in the Lomme River, under the eerie ruins of a Medieval castle. The region around Rochefort is the Famenne, where the limestone hills have been hollowed out by the Lomme and Lesse Rivers, creating labyrinthine cave systems. There’s one right on the edge of town, …
The capital of Belgium’s German-speaking community is on the margins of the High Fens, a plateau of raised peat bogs and moorland at the highest point in the country. Eupen’s character is still defined by a sheet and drapery industry that reached its apogee in the 18th century. The cityscape is endowed with lots of …
In Medieval times Hasselt was on the Zuiderzee, a saltwater bay of the North Sea, and as a member of the Hanseatic League was a major player in northern European trade in the 15th century. But after losing business to other better located trading posts in the 16th century, Hasselt slipped into relative obscurity and …
On the Scheldt Estuary, Breskens is a fishing town that for hundreds of years made its livelihood on the water. Since the 20th century the fishing industry has declined, but its memory lives on in a fishery museum in the harbour and a fishery festival every summer when you can soak up old-time Zeeland maritime …
The oldest town in the province Drenthe, Coevorden grew up around a castle on a ford on the road between Münster and Groningnen. In the 17th century Coevorden was completely reworked as a fortified city by the Dutch military mastermind Menno van Coehoorn. The pattern of concentric polygonal streets, and star-shaped outer moat all remain …
An arty and well-to-do coastal village minutes from Alkmaar, Bergen aan Zee is in the sandy folds of the North Holland dunes. From as early as the 1600s the dunes, sky and sea were a source of inspiration to artists. But it was the Expressionists and Cubists of the early 20th century who made their …
The small but photogenic town of Monnickendam was a big-hitter at the turn of the 17th century, pulling in trade from across the Baltic Sea. A cosy old tangle of streets survives from that time, on the harbour are smokehouses and shipyards, two of Monnickendam’s signature industries. Since the Zuiderzee was dammed, becoming a set …
In the space of a century a lot of things have changed for Marken. What used to be an island is now a peninsula, joined to North Holland by a dike in 1957. Before that, the surrounding Zuiderzee became a freshwater lake when the Afsluitdijk dam was completed in 1932, ending Marken’s fishing trade. This …
On the Belgian border in Limburg, the origins of the white village of Thorn go back to the last quarter of the 10th century when it was founded as a Benedictine abbey. This was a monastery for noble women, but also its own principality with all kinds of privileges. For 500 years Thorn was able …