Through historic terp villages

Discover the Groningen of the terp villages, the canals and the wide fields and grasslands. You will make a short route, but you will need your time to take a good look at the many beautiful buildings.

Churches on the mounds
Cycling through the terp villages you will see many characteristic buildings, such as old schools and parsonages. On the terp of Oosterwijtwerd you will find one of the first brick churches in Groningen. In Godlinze you can also admire a beautiful thirteenth-century church. In the terp of Arwerd finds from the Roman period and the early Middle Ages have been made. There are now four farms.

Mammoth
In Zeerijp you will pass the De Leeuw mill, a corn and hulling mill that was built here in 1865. Also nice to see: the Jacobus church, whose origins lie in the middle of the fourteenth century. In 1821, the bone of a thigh bone of (probably) a mammoth was found in Zeerijp. In 1906, the bone was lost in a fire in a museum.

Castle Ekenstein
Groningen once had more than 200 borgs. Many of them disappeared due to debts. The owners were forced to sell their property, after which the borg was demolished. The borg Ekensteijn is one of the seventeen borgs that have been preserved. It was built in 1648 by order of the physician and later mayor of Groningen Johan Eeck. In 1772, the borg was expanded and provided with a moat. In the nineteenth century, a park in English landscape style was laid out by garden and landscape architect Lucas Pieters Roodbaard. Towards the end of this century, the borg was given a neo-Gothic makeover. For example, stained glass windows from various Groningen churches were installed in the library. In addition to Ekenstein, you can also admire an old country house that was founded by the Eeck family: Rusthoven, dating from 1686.