Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a village where water takes the place of streets. In its old core the farmhouses stand on small islands of peat, each reached by its own wooden footbridge, and much of the village is threaded by narrow canals rather than roads. There are around 176 bridges in the village, and the thatched farmhouses, the footbridges and the quiet of the boats give the place a character found almost nowhere else in Europe.

The landscape is man-made. Settlers arrived here in the thirteenth century, and from the fourteenth century onwards the digging of peat for fuel transformed the land: the cut-out beds filled with water and became the lakes and channels around the village, while the strips left between them carried houses and farms. Local tradition holds that the first settlers found great numbers of wild goat horns in the ground, remains of animals said to have drowned in a flood of 1170, and called the place Geytenhoren, goat horns, later shortened to Giethoorn.

For centuries this was an ordinary, remote corner of Overijssel. It became famous in 1958, when Bert Haanstra filmed his comedy Fanfare here, and the image of the canal village has drawn visitors ever since. Giethoorn sits in the middle of the Weerribben-Wieden National Park, a large wetland of reed beds, lakes and fens, so the most rewarding way to see it is by small boat, drifting out of the village canals into the open water and reed country beyond. Early mornings and the edges of the season, when the canals are quiet, show why the village earned its reputation.

Getting there

Giethoorn lies in the province of Overijssel, about 6 km from the town of Steenwijk. From Steenwijk railway station, bus line 70 runs through Giethoorn, and from April to October the seasonal line 270 also serves the village. The nearest airport is Groningen Airport Eelde (GRQ), about 54 km away.