Holiday apartment in Philippine: mussels, fortifications and polder landscape

Philippine between mussel culture and polder landscape

Philippine combines a polder landscape shaped by flower-rich dike slopes with a distinctive mussel culture and visible traces of its history as a fortified town. If you choose a holiday apartment in Philippine, you can focus your stay on nature observation, regional cuisine, walking trails and historic buildings. The landscape around Philippine is just as intriguing as the stories connected with the town.

Mussels, a family recipe and mussel wine

The culinary side of Philippine includes Zeeland mussels. During the mussel season from spring to late summer, restaurants in Philippine serve fresh Zeeland mussels every day. The mussels are prepared according to a centuries-old family recipe. The mussel restaurants in the town serve around half a million kilograms of mussels every year. Philippine selects a mussel wine every year; the selected mussel wine can be sampled in every mussel restaurant in Philippine. This gives the town a clear culinary focus for travellers who also take regional cuisine and local traditions into account when choosing their accommodation.

Walking through polder landscapes and fortress history

The Ommetje Philippine circular walk leads through the polder landscape, across dikes and past former harbours west of Philippine. It is part of the Zeeland walking network “Langs Linies en Kreken” and the East Flemish walking network “Meetjeslandse kreken”. The flower-rich dike slopes around Philippine attract butterflies and grasshoppers, possibly including the Glanville fritillary. The circular walk also includes two Second World War bunkers at the Olmendijk, including a so-called Tobruk bunker. The route therefore combines an experience of the landscape with historical traces, without nature and local history appearing separate from one another.

Buildings and regional places of remembrance

Philippine is an old fortified town; remains of Spanish and Dutch-style fortifications from the Eighty Years’ War have been preserved. The restored eastern stone bear can be seen from the road along the “Philippineweg” trail and has an information board with explanations and several construction drawings. The western stone bear belongs to the Philippine fortress and is open to visitors for one day a year during Open Monumentendag. Philippine also currently has a Krulbol club as part of the region’s traditional Krulbol culture.

A striking sacred building is the Maria Hemelvaartkerk. The domed church was built in 1953 and 1954 in a traditionalist style with Byzantine and classical elements. Due to the high aesthetic quality of the design by Siebers and Van Dael, it has architectural and historical value. The building and its furnishings are particularly well preserved and complete, making the church especially worth seeing. In the wider regional surroundings of Philippine are the Hellenburg ruins, the forts Frederik Hendrik and Rammekens, and the islands of Lemmerplaat, Spieringplaat, Arneplaat and Schelpenhoekplaat. Fort Sint Nicolaas is located in the vicinity of Philippine.

Cycling in the footsteps of the mussel town

The “Philippine, stad van de mossel” cycling route follows the traces of the period when mussel boats sailed in and out here and recalls Philippine’s important role in the mussel trade. The Spuikompark also takes up the harbour history: it commemorates the former flushing basin, whose stored water was used at low tide to flush silt and sand from the harbour and the shipping channel of Philippine. The Mosselmonument in Philippine was created by J.C. van Driel and unveiled on 6 July 1988. Depending on your preferred pace of travel, you can therefore regard Philippine as a destination for culinary discoveries, walks, cycling tours and cultural and historical impressions.

More places for planning your trip

Hoek, Biervliet, Westdorpe, Zaamslag, Terneuzen, Sas Van Gent, Axel and Sluiskil

To the overarching travel overview: Terneuzen.