Country houses and castles Salland

This bicycle route takes you through the river landscape of the IJssel Valley with its river banks, floodplains and sand ridges running from east to west. The area is mainly used for dairy farming and also has several estates with beautiful forests. You cycle past various manors, country houses and estates. A number of these estates have beautiful country houses, some of which date back to the late Middle Ages. West of Diepenveen you pass a robust square tower. It is a remnant of the havezate Oud Rande, which was built here between 1570 and 1580. A little further on is Nieuw Rande. The predecessor of this house served in 1672 as the headquarters of Bommen Berend or Berend van Galen, Bishop of Munster, who together with his colleague from Cologne and the armies of France tried to overrun the Netherlands. The stately castle Groot Hoenlo sits on a moated island. Famous resident Harry Mulisch wrote his book "the discovery of heaven" there. The country house Boxbergen, dating from 1344, was rebuilt between 1650 and 1653 after a fire. It was then owned by the Ripperdas and, according to tradition, had seven facades, equipped with as many windows as one counts days in the year. In the middle of an island on the erve Voeldijk near the castle stands the murder cross of Boxbergen, which must never be moved. The cross recalls a murder, which took place centuries ago. On estate de Haere near Olst is the largest sundial in Europe. You also cycle along the river IJssel. Notable there are the structures of the IJssel Line, constructed during the Cold War (1958-1989). In case of an imminent invasion, a large strip of land could be flooded. In the infocentre IJssel den Nul information about nature water and culture flow together. You can discover and experience this by feeling and pulling open drawers in the exhibition, investigating and tinkering in the seasonal lab and experiencing in the area around the building.