Nieuw-Vossemeer: Cultural History and Routes

You can get to know Nieuw-Vossemeer through its literary and local history, as well as through cycling and walking routes across the polder landscape. The museum, historic windmills and church offer a different focus from the routes along the water, through woodland and over dikes. If you are planning a stay, these provide concrete starting points for choosing your excursions.

Culture and Local History

The A.M. de Jong Museum features a permanent exhibition about the life and work of the writer A.M. de Jong. The museum also preserves his intellectual legacy. De Jong was born in Nieuw-Vossemeer on 29 March 1888; his birthplace and the exhibition’s themes connect local history with his life and writing.

Information panels about the 1953 North Sea flood disaster are located at three places in Nieuw-Vossemeer. Each panel has its own QR code, which you can scan to read about what happened at that location during the flood. The three stops thus offer different local points of connection to the same historical subject.

Another date in the town’s history is 1567: the lords of the Lordship of Vossemeer granted the first hereditary farmsteads that year to establish a new village. The Protestant Church in Nieuw-Vossemeer is a hall church dating from 1654. In 2015, a concert series began there under the name “Cultuur in het kerkje”; this date refers to its start.

Molen Assumburg also has a changeable history. It was originally built as an oil mill and comes from the Zaanstreek region. It was built in Assendelft in 1780, then moved to Nieuw-Vossemeer in 1897 and rebuilt there as a gallery-style grain mill. A raised blue pennant indicates that it is open. Before visiting, check whether this sign is currently in place.

Molen De Vos was built in 1714 and is considered the first stone mill in West Brabant. In contrast with the history of Assumburg, the focus here is on its early construction date and regional significance. Together with the Protestant Church, these sites offer different historical milestones without reducing the buildings to a single era.

Cycling Routes, Walking Trails and Polder Landscape

The approximately 39-kilometre Merijntje-Gijzen cycling route runs through the Land van Merijntje Gijzen. You can start at the A.M. de Jong Museum in Nieuw-Vossemeer; a statue of Merijntje Gijzen stands directly in front. The route also passes places where outdoor scenes for the television series “Merijntje Gijzen’s Jeugd” were filmed in 1973. Its length, starting point and connection to the series provide several concrete points of interest along the way.

The circular “In de Boezem van de Eendracht” route also starts in Nieuw-Vossemeer, but follows a different succession of landscapes: along the water, through woodland and over dikes. A walking trail through the Stellebos makes the area accessible. When choosing between the routes mentioned here, you can weigh the cycling route’s specific length and connection to the series against the circular route’s varied scenery.

The polders of Nieuw-Vossemeer and De Heen include various waterways, reed beds, fields, orchards and tree-lined banks. These landscape features give the routes a different character from the historical sites in the village. Those interested in how the landscape changes will find specific points of interest here, both by the water and across the agricultural land.

Two different interests can guide your plans: the stories connected with the museum, windmills and church, or routes whose features range from the history of film to the polder landscape. This allows you to plan your stay around the subjects that interest you most on site.

Discover more destinations: Steenbergen, De Heen, Dinteloord, Steenbergen.

Go to the main travel overview: Steenbergen.