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 rolling fields. In Maasbracht, Echt and Montfort you will experience the characteristic Limburg cosiness.

Cozy Maasbracht
Cycle into the Munningsbos. A relatively dry nature reserve where mainly conifers grow. Further on you will pass the Reigersbroek, an old marsh and peat area. There is a lookout tower that you can walk to for a beautiful panorama of the area. Tip: take your binoculars with you! In Maasbracht you will pass the Leonardusmolen, a corn 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 Edith Stein stayed until her deportation in 1942. Behind the tourist office is the Sint-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. You drive here between fragrant conifers. What silence!

Montfort Castle
Just outside Montfort you will pass the impressive ruins of Montfort Castle, a castle originally built in the thirteenth century and commissioned by Hendrik III van Gelre. For centuries this was one of the largest castles in the Netherlands. Due to its location on a ridge in the water-rich Vlootbeekdal, the polygonal ground 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 paper manufacturer from Roermond had a country house built on the site of one of the former defence towers. This so-called Hunting Lodge was restored in 2005-2006 and now houses an information centre.