Niftrik, Wijchen, Leur

Today’s story takes place in the area just south of the Waal and just north of the Maas. A landscape shaped by these rivers for thousands of years. The water deposited clay, blew sand into dunes and carved out new river branches and creeks. To this day, it remains a land of fens, lakes, streams and cut-off river channels, a landscape always in motion.

The water didn’t just bring life, it also played a strategic role. Castles and fortresses rose along the Maas to defend the north of the Netherlands. Lords chose their locations carefully, often on a motte, a man-made mound, allowing them to overlook their land. Religion also left a strong mark for centuries. In the Middle Ages, monasteries and churches followed one another, until the Reformation redrew boundaries and left lasting traces.

Today, we search for the vanished stones in the land of the fens. Which castles crumbled into ruins, why did some churches lose their naves, and what happened to the collapsed tower of Hernen?

Fun fact for cyclists: many more stones have disappeared from this landscape than you'd think at first glance. A castle once stood in Balgoij, and probably in Leur as well. To the untrained eye, there’s little left to see, but the six-metre-high motte near the old church in Leur reveals that a fortress once stood here.

The reasons for the disappearance of these stones are as varied as the buildings themselves. Wars and battles left smouldering ruins. The Reformation made churches and chapels obsolete, leading to decay. Some towers simply collapsed due to old age. And many stones were reused in nearby farms or roads. Time and again, the face of the landscape changed.

While the walls crumbled over centuries, the fens remained. Quietly lying here between river dunes and heathlands, together with the ruins and towers, they tell the story of this unique region.

This Premium cycling route was compiled by our editor: Désirée van Uffelen.