Oosterleek: Church, Longhouse and Cycling Route

The Hervormde Kerk of Oosterleek was built around 1690. The town’s historic buildings and archaeological finds provide different points of interest for a stay, alongside a cycling route through the area. You can get to know Oosterleek through both its houses and archaeological finds and the route taken by the cycling trail.

Church and archaeological traces

The Oosterleker Kerkje is an official wedding venue designated by the municipality of Drechterland. This adds a present-day official function to the town’s building history. Both aspects offer different points of reference: the construction date places a church building in its historical context, while the wedding venue describes the function assigned to the Kerkje by the municipality.

A small medieval cemetery was discovered in Oosterleek immediately south of Zuiderdijk 33 during drainage works. The deceased were buried according to Christian tradition, with their heads facing west. For those interested in archaeology, the town’s history thus includes both the specific find site and its connection with the drainage works, as well as a particular burial tradition. The orientation of the graves is another detail alongside their medieval date.

Longhouse forms and floor plans

Huis Oosterleek is a now-rare type of West Frisian longhouse farmstead. Its distinguishing features are an elongated floor plan without a hallway and rooms arranged one behind another. The description thus draws attention to both the exterior form and the interior layout: the length, lack of a hallway and sequence of rooms together define this building type.

A longhouse stood on an archaeologically investigated plot in Oosterleek in the 17th century. From front to back, it consisted of an unheated front house, a heated room behind it and a cowshed at the rear. This spatial sequence makes the location and different heating arrangements of the areas clear. At Huis Oosterleek, the focus is on the now-rare building form and its floor plan; the archaeological longhouse also provides specific details about the sequence of rooms and heated areas.

Cycling route and short stops

The Westfriese Omringdijk Route runs first past Oostergouw, then De Weed, and then through Oosterleek. A large part of the route follows the Markermeer. This places Oosterleek on a cycling route whose described course also names places before and after it.

The Westfriese Omringdijk is 126 kilometers long and can be walked along most of its length. For your planning, this answers a different question from the cycling route through Oosterleek: here the focus is on walking along a long regional dike, while the cycling route describes the order of places along a bike ride. You can distinguish between the information depending on whether you are mainly considering a cycling trip or a walk.

A poem stands beside the lighthouse near Oosterleek, adding a literary point of reference to the architectural and local history. Nearby, the Vuurtje van Leek is located on the Zuiderdijk at Leekerhoek, south of Oosterleek. For cyclists and walkers, it makes a short stop of 10 to 20 minutes. This time range gives the stop a clear framework when planning your time in the surrounding area.

Discover more destinations: Venhuizen, Wijdenes, Hoogkarspel, Westwoud, Hem, Schellinkhout

Go to the main travel overview: Drechterland.