New Van Gogh Walking Tour in Tilburg
Tilburg, Oct. 18, 2022 - The newest Van Gogh Walking Route opened today at Van Gogh National Park. Hikers follow in the footsteps of Van Gogh with the new hiking trail in Tilburg and discover the area where young Vincent received drawing lessons.
The opening of the route took place at Huize Moerenburg, in the green outskirts on the edge of Landscape Park Moerenburg-Koningshoeven and the place where in 1310 one of the first stone houses of Tilburg was built. Dorien Verschuijten of VisitBrabant Routebureau together with Frank van den Eijnden, Operational Director Van Gogh National Park, opened the route by symbolically hammering the route pole into the ground. The route is the fourth in a series of five walks that VisitBrabant Routebureau is developing on behalf of Van Gogh National Park. In February 2022, the first walking route was opened in Nuenen and routes in Etten-Leur and Zundert followed in June. Before the end of this year, the Van Gogh Walking Route Helvoirt will also be realized.
Van Gogh in Tilburg
Van Gogh lived in Tilburg for about 1.5 years. Here he received his first drawing lessons in 1866. When Van Gogh arrives in the city at the age of 13, Tilburg has about 18,500 inhabitants. The Tilburg-Breda railroad line and station are just three years old, and at this time the Wilhelmina Canal had not yet been dug. In the immediate vicinity of Tilburg, as then, lies the stream landscape of the Leij and the Voorste Stroom, with its small fields and pollarded willows. Characteristic of the later work of Van Gogh. With this route you walk out of the city, straight into the green.
"I can sometimes long so much to make landscape, like a distant walk to freshen up once and I see in the whole of nature, e.g. in trees, expression and as it were a soul. A row of pollarded willows has something of a procession of orphans sometimes." (from a letter from Vincent to brother Theo, The Hague, December 1882).
Along the route
The route takes you along the Korvelse Waterloop and through a typical 19th century Brabant landscape with streams, fields and fens. The path winds via the Schaapsven past the banks of the Galgeven past the De Rendierhoeve, a former neo-Gothic monastery built in 1903 and home to French Trappist nuns more than a hundred years ago. Abbey Onze Lieve Vrouw van Koningshoeven is also on the route. Here monks still brew La Trappe. From Uitkijktoren De Nieuwe Herdgang you can see how nature is intertwined with the city in Landschapspark Moerenburg-Koningshoeven.
Practical information
The walking route (16 km) is plotted along the walking junction system in Brabant. You can recognize the routes by the little shields with the inscription 'Van Gogh National Park', affixed to the well-known node posts.
- You can also download this (and other Van Gogh Handelroutes here at routesinbrabant.nl.
- Physical walking maps are available from VVV Tilburg (Stadhuisplein 326 A) and others, and can be ordered from webshop.visitbrabant.com.
- You can also check out the Van gogh Walking Route Tilburg here.
Sustainable tourism
Van Gogh National Park's ambition is to create more than 1,000 km of unpaved hiking trails throughout the area. This is part of a broader sustainable tourism program. The starting point is to make it more attractive for residents and visitors in this area to enjoy the landscape from their "own" front door. This will spread the visiting pressure and spare popular and vulnerable natural areas. With the Van Gogh hiking routes, VisitBrabant Routebureau further expands its collection of high-quality experiential routes built around Brabant stories and themes. Frank van den Eijnden, Operational Director Van Gogh National Park: "We are now working with 70 organizations on the ambitious plans for Van Gogh National Park. With this route we not only connect the city with nature, but we also make the connection between the activities of Stichting Duurzaamheidsvallei, Het Groene Woud and the green agendas of Tilburg and Oisterwijk."
About Van Gogh National Park
Van Gogh National Park is a broad movement of governments, organizations, institutions, business and tourism in Brabant. Together with residents and civic initiatives, they are committed to strengthening nature and landscape. With green to the heart of cities and villages; and with vital farmland in the middle of an economically powerful region. This is how they are building the landscape of the future, inspired by the guts and imagination of Vincent Van Gogh - who grew up there. Van Gogh National Park(vangoghnationalpark.com) covers the scenic area of two major stream systems in Brabant. In the west the Mark and Aa or Weerijs and in the east the Dommel and Aa. Together they form the stream landscape of the Brabant sandy soils, which includes large nature reserves and landscapes such as De Loonse and Drunense Duinen, the Groene Woud and the Baronie. Learn more about Van Gogh National Park on the website.
