Identity summary
3 to 7 days
Spring · Summer · Autumn
Recommended car
Heritage · Countryside
Variable accessibility
Modular rhythm
General presentation
Colonies de bienfaisance
Villages-plans, farms and institutions tell of a social experience of the 19th century on both sides of the border.
The discovery of the Charitable Colonies is based around Colony of Merksplas, Veenhuizen and Wilhelminaoord. The stay thus alternates between the heritage and the countryside, which gives a concrete picture of the destination beyond its only best known site.
See all
For a stay of 3 to 7 days, it is better to balance visits and travel times. Also to be anticipated: transport and openings to be confirmed and weather likely to modify the program. A car is usually the easiest way to connect the different sectors. Accessibility varies from site to site and deserves to be verified step by step.
Strengths and constraints
Strengths
- Colonie de Merksplas
- Veenhuizen
- Wilhelminaoord
Before you choose
- Transport and openings to be confirmed
- Weather likely to change the programme
Places worth visiting
A selection to start dreaming and organizing the stay — not an exhaustive list of everything there is to see.
Remarkable location
Colonie de Merksplas
The settlement of Merksplas retains the traces of a social agricultural project, with collective buildings, ordered land and long rural prospects. The visit is interested in this mixture of social reform, control and land work, visible in the sober architecture and the still legible organization of the field.
Remarkable location
Veenhuizen
Veenhuizen looks like a village designed to discipline and house, with its buildings lined up, farms, moral inscriptions and its former prison. The place tells a social utopia become a control system, in a surprisingly quiet setting of canals, trees and regular facades.
Remarkable location
Wilhelminaoord
Wilhelminaoord shows the rural face of the former Dutch charitable settlements, with plots, farms and houses linked to a project of reintegration through agricultural work. The landscape seems peaceful, but the local buildings and archives recall a very framed social history.
Practical tips
This information helps know if the destination matches the planned trip before starting a fuller search.
To go further
More activities
Restaurants, walks, culture, leisure and outings to search without leaving the destination card.
The nearest destinations
The closest ideas on the map, to extend your trip.
Escaped to discover
Villes hanséatiques de l IJssel
Overijssel / Gueldre, 🇳🇱 Netherlands
Discover this ideaSimilar destinations
Same landscapes and the same pace of travel, elsewhere in the world.
