A real tour around Echt

Around Echt you can cycle carefree through the varied landscape of the narrowest part of the Netherlands. You will find quiet stream valleys, richly vegetated forests and undulating fields. In Maasbracht, Echt and Montfort you will experience the characteristic Limburg geniality.

Cozy Maasbracht
Cycle into the Munningsbos. A relatively dry nature reserve where mainly coniferous trees grow. Further on you will pass the Reigersbroek, an old swamp and peat area. There is a lookout tower that you can walk to for a beautiful panorama of the area. Tip: bring your binoculars! In Maasbracht you will pass the Leonardusmolen, a flour mill from 1864.

Real
In Echt you can admire some beautiful monuments. In the Bovenstestraat you will pass the nineteenth-century Carmelite monastery where the German philosopher and Carmelite woman Edith Stein stayed until her deportation in 1942. Behind the tourist office is the St. Landricus Church, a Gothic hall church that originally dates from the fifteenth century. The town hall dates from 1867. The Annendaalsbos is the last nature reserve on your route. Here you drive between fragrant conifers. What a silence!

Montfort Castle
Just outside Montfort you will pass the impressive ruins of Montfort Castle, an originally thirteenth-century castle that was built by order of Henry III of Gelre. For centuries this was one of the largest castles in the Netherlands. Due to its location on a ridge in the watery Vlootbeek valley, the polygonal floor plan and the thick natural stone walls, the castle was practically impregnable. In the seventeenth century the castle lost its military function and fell into disrepair. In 1850, a Roermond paper manufacturer had a country residence built on the site of one of the former defense towers. This so-called hunting lodge was restored in 2005-2006 and now houses an information center.