Explore the countryside of Nieuwpoort

Nieuwpoort is a pleasant seaside town at the mouth of the Yser. You will find the largest marina in Northern Europe, a Belfry and of course a lot of cultural history. Nieuwpoort is best known for the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600 between the Republic and the Spanish armies. In the twentieth century the Germans were at the proverbial door. Nieuwpoort was severely damaged during the Battle of the Yser in the First World War. The town, a support point for the Belgian army, was able to maintain itself through an old tactic: inundation. By the way, there is also a town in the Netherlands called Nieuwpoort. The two Nieuwpoort are partner cities.

Cycling is also nice in the Nieuwpoort area. The route takes you through the Poldervlakte, as the region behind the Belgian coast is also called. The landscape here is flat and veined with a network of canals and waterways to drain the land. In this part of West Flanders, old-fashioned peace and conviviality still prevail. An ideal area to clear your head and completely relax.

During the route you will also visit picturesque polder villages such as Mannekensvere, Keiem and Stuivekenskerke. In this region, the landscape and villages still bear the traces left by the First World War. Stuivekenskerke also had a hard time at the time. In October 1914, Belgian officers set fire to the church of Stuivekenskerke so that the Germans would not use it as an observation post. When the Belgians flooded the Yser plain a few days later, the German advance was stopped, but part of the village was flooded. For the next four years, Stuivekenskerke remained divided into a northern part with German posts and Oud-Stuivekenskerke with Belgian outposts. One of these outposts was manned from December 1914 to May 1915 by the artillery observer Edouard Lekeux, a reserve lieutenant who was in fact a monk. After the war he became a Franciscan again.