Pearls from the Zwin region

Discover the museums and visitor centers in the Zwinstreek

This long bike tour—best undertaken over several days—takes you to the museums and visitor centers in the Zwinstreek. The Zwinstreek is a region on the border between Flanders and the Netherlands, where beaches and polders meet. It has a tumultuous past, spiced with storm surges, floods, siltation, bloom, decline, wars, trade, agriculture, fishing, tourism, and nature. A variety of elements make the history of the Zwinstreek so attractive.

Brave adventurers and diligent workers have crossed the history: distant ancestors who settled in the marshlands and on the mounds, dike builders who took on the battle against the sea, medieval traders who sailed the seas with their small ships, ancestors who rose up against the Spanish, families who made grand plans to develop the region for tourism... They succeeded in making the area livable, inhabitant-friendly, and above all, unique.

The border between Flanders and the Netherlands is merely a historical fact. It took shape in 1648 at the end of the Eighty Years' War and has roughly vanished again about 350 years later. Only typical place signs, slightly different signage, and urbanization reveal the difference. There are still many things that unite people on both sides of the national border.

In this Zwinstreek, over the last four decades, small but nonetheless refined museums and visitor centers have emerged independently over the years. Quite coincidentally, they each reveal a partial aspect of the rich history of the Zwinstreek. The region unites these places, and the diversity adds an additional dimension to the whole. Thus, a paradise of nostalgia and knowledge has emerged for hikers, cyclists, and motorists exploring this unique region.

Welcome!

For more information: Sincfala, Museum of the Zwinstreek, Pannenstraat 140, 8300 Knokke-Heist, Tel.: +32 50 630 872, sincfala@knokke-heist.be, www.sincfala.be