Holiday apartment in Nederweert – nature, routes and culture

Nederweert has a junction network for hikers, cyclists and horse riders, with GPX route descriptions. In addition, there are nature reserves, waterworks, historic windmills and museums that reveal different facets of the town and its surroundings.

Nature and routes

Buitencentrum De Pelen is located on the edge of De Groote Peel National Park. The national park is a Natura 2000 site on the border of the Dutch provinces of Limburg and Noord-Brabant. The peatland is characterised by extensive peat bogs, ponds, heathland and small forests, and provides breeding habitat for many different bird species. Buitencentrum De Pelen is the starting and finishing point for various walking and cycling routes. Discovery and experience tours can be borrowed from the information desk; various activities also start there.

There is free parking at Buitencentrum De Pelen. From Weert railway station, bus 370 towards Venlo goes to the Meijelsedijk/Moostdijk stop near Buitencentrum De Pelen. Drinks and lunch are served at the Peelkiosk. Another nature reserve is Weerterbos, which belongs to KempenBroek, a cross-border nature area extending across the Netherlands and Belgium.

The 5.56-kilometre Ommetje Nederweert – Sarsven en de Banen starts in the Rowven nature reserve in Nederweert-Eind. Between junctions 82 and 11, the route leads to a birdwatching hut. A detour to the Schaapskooi is also possible via junctions 14 and 38, especially during lambing season. Another route is the audio tour “De vergeten Verdedigingslinie”, an approximately 12-kilometre walking or cycling route around the Kanalenviersprong. It starts in Park de Heerlijckheid in Nederweert.

Culture

At the Limburgs Openluchtmuseum Eynderhoof, visitors can see how people lived and worked in the Peel. Eynderhoof is known for traditional crafts, which are demonstrated in reconstructed buildings. The museum includes workshops for basket weavers, shoemakers and potters. The permanent exhibition “Van Stenen mes tot Bronzen bijl” presents archaeological finds from Nederweert and the surrounding area.

The municipal Kunstroute Nederweert leads to public works of art and offers an audio tour via the izi.TRAVEL app. “De vergeten Verdedigingslinie” also combines landscape and history: the audio tour features listening stations with stories about the Peel-Raamstelling, the Kanalenviersprong and the history of Nederweert. The Peel-Raamstelling in Nederweert comprised concrete fortifications, trenches, barbed-wire obstacles and steel obstacles constructed in 1939–1940 as part of a defence plan.

History and structures

The Waterkrachtcentrale Nederweert is one of the oldest hydroelectric power stations in the Netherlands. Molen de Korenbloem is a grain mill dating from 1870. It can be visited every second and fourth Saturday of the month or by telephone appointment. Molen de Windlust is the only windmill in Limburg that crushes oilseed and is therefore unique of its kind. Lock 15 is located on the Zuid-Willemsvaart and was built in the 1920s.

The British military cemetery in Nederweert contains the graves of 363 fallen service personnel. The Sint-Lambertuskerk was built in the Brabant Gothic style. The Onze Lieve Vrouwe Onbevlekte Ontvangenis in Ospel is a three-aisled cross basilica in an early Gothic form dating from 1865. St. Gerardus Church in Nederweert-Eind dates from 1955 and contains more than one hundred mosaics and works of art by Pierre Weegels and Cor van Geleuken.

Other places

The immediate surroundings include Ospel, Leveroy, Nederweert and Nederweert-Eind. Other destinations in the wider area are Eijsden-Margraten, Schinnen, Maastricht and Vaals.

For the wider travel overview: Limburg.