Gaanderen: Walking Routes, History and Fair

Gaanderen combines walking routes with local history and events. Different priorities may shape your travel plans: the Ganderpad with its traces of landscape and industry, a route with a specific distance, historic sites or the fair. If you are looking for a hotel for your trip, you can start by choosing accommodation based on the reason for your visit.

Walking Routes and Landscape

The “Ganderpad” leads through Gaanderen’s varied landscape, following the Oude IJssel and streams, crossing river dunes and passing traces of the iron industry. Water, landforms and industrial history come together along this route. Gaanderen railway station at Hoofdstraat 26 is a starting point for the Ganderpad and a specific landmark to use when planning your route.

The seven-kilometre “Gaanderommetje” starts at ’t Onland, heads towards Gaanderen and returns by a long detour. Fields and meadows alternate with woodland; most of the route follows hidden forest paths and paved farm tracks. One section follows the Bielheimerbeek, where walkers can observe waterbirds, aquatic plants and other life in and around the water. The mix of farmland, woodland and streamside scenery gives this route a variety of landscape impressions.

The “Rondje de Pol” walking route is about two kilometres long and starts and ends at De Pol. Compared with the seven-kilometre Gaanderommetje, it is a considerably shorter option. The two route distances offer a concrete comparison for planning, without suggesting that the routes are the same.

History Between Village, Monastery and Iron Industry

Gaanderen village only developed in the second half of the 19th century around the Martinuskerk on Kerkstraat. Bethlehem Monastery was established as early as 1179 near Gaanderen, between Kerkstraat and Kloosterlaan, and was completely destroyed in 1579 during the Eighty Years’ War. The village’s development and the monastery’s earlier history represent different periods in the local past.

The “Rondom Klooster Bethlehem” route reveals remains of the old moat system around the former monastery and runs parallel to the Bielheimerbeek for part of the way. The iron industry is also part of the local history: the presence of bog iron ore in the soil fostered its development in Gaanderen.

At the Watertapweg–Hogeweg–Binnenweg junction, an information board installed in 2020 marks the former site of the Gaanderen grain mill. It shows a topographic map of the area as it was in 1905 and an aerial photograph from 2015. The two images show the same place at different points in time.

The Herman van Velzen memorial plaque stands at the corner of Watertapweg and Frans Roesstraat, near the site where his birth farm once stood. A permanent location for the Vulcaansoord memorial plaque was found in 1996 on Slakweg, approximately at the edge of the outermost buildings of the former factory site.

Fair, Culture and Surroundings

Gaanderen’s fair takes place on the second weekend of September. Schuttersgilde St. Martinus Gaanderen has traditionally organised it for many years. If you want to plan your stay around the festival, check the exact dates for the year you intend to travel.

De Pol sports and cultural centre in Gaanderen caters to a wide range of sports and cultural events. It is another local point of interest for travellers interested in sports or cultural events. The approximately five-hectare Akkermansbeek nature park is also located in the area around Gaanderen and Terborg.

If you are travelling for the festival, checking the exact dates will help you plan your stay accordingly.

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