Gieten Between Nature Trails and Local History

Gieten brings together natural areas, hiking trails and local cultural history. Several specific highlights can help you plan your stay: explore a marked hiking route between Gieten and Gasselte, include trails through natural areas and along the Hunze, or discover Hazewind Mill and the Dorpskerk. If you’re looking for a hotel in Gieten, it helps to first decide what you want to focus on: landscape and outdoor activities, or architecture and local history.

Breevenen, the Hondsrug and the Hunze

Breevenen is a new nature area covering more than 250 hectares, east of Gieten, Annen and Eext. Together with the Zwanemeerbos, it forms a single area. The Zwanemeerbos lies north of Gieten, where burial mounds are spread across three groups. The Gieten: Hondsrug en Hunze route passes five new Drentse Landschap nature areas, winding through which is the Hunze. For those interested in natural and cultural history, these offer a variety of options: a large new nature area, burial mounds in a forest to the north, and a route passing five nature areas.

Compare hiking and cycling routes

Dorp en Veld is a signposted 13 km hiking route between Gieten and Gasselte. It crosses the Hondsrug through woodland and heathland. The route can be reached from the Spiekersteeg or Brink bus stops in Gieten; each stop is about a five-minute walk from the starting point. The distance, scenery and named access points give you concrete criteria for comparing Dorp en Veld with other routes.

A digital hiking route is about 6.5 km long and follows the dikes around the new nature area along the Hunze. One of the hiking routes through Breevenen starts at the Zwanemeer swimming pool near Gieten. At roughly half the length of Dorp en Veld, the digital route highlights different landscape features, with its dikes and the Hunze, compared with the woodland and heathland route across the Hondsrug.

A cycling route runs from Gieten over the hills of Bonnen and through the picturesque hamlet of Veenhof to Gieterveen, crossing the Hunze along the way. When choosing between hiking and cycling routes, you can also consider how they relate to the Hunze: the digital hiking route follows the river, while the cycling route crosses it.

Church, mill and local history

The Dorpskerk Gieten and its freestanding tower have been recognized as Rijksmonumenten since 1965—that is, as nationally protected monuments in the Netherlands. Two 16th-century bells hang in the tower. A medieval church dedicated to Mary once stood on the grounds of the Dorpskerk. Its history spans the medieval church site, the bells and its designation as a protected monument in 1965.

Hazewind Mill is one of the oldest surviving grain mills in Drenthe; its ground floor is set up for performances. The statue De Dorpssmid stands on the site of the former Dijkhuizen smithy and commemorates a nearly extinct profession. Alongside the church’s history, a historic grain mill and the memory of an almost vanished profession offer further topics in local cultural history.

Discover more destinations: Gasselternijveen, Annen, Grolloo, Nooitgedacht, Anderen, Nijlande, Nieuwediep, Schoonloo

For the broader travel overview: Aa En Hunze.