City Walk Emmen

Directions

• • The departure point of this route, Villa de Lindenhof at Hoofdstraat 26, is where the Tourist Info’s office is now housed. You can obtain more information and optionally get a small map of the route here. The building is a special and iconic monument. Built in 1936, it was commissioned by Roelof Zegering Hadders, former councillor of Emmen, and his sister Margreet. The village was privately inhabited until around 1980, after which it was given all kinds of public functions. The flower clock from 1978 next to the villa is a tribute to the important role the former councillor played in Emmen’s political landscape.
  • The walk runs in a northerly direction. On the corner of Derkstraat and Hoofdstraat lies Jan van Peer’s shop. There is a work of art—a mural by Judith Braun—high above its main entrance. It was created on the occasion of the building’s renovation. Family business Jan van Peer started as a shop for selling household items at this location 150 years ago.
  • Having arrived in Stationsstraat, by number 14, two Stolpersteine can be found in the pavement. This is a project by German artist Gunter Demnig. He has been placing memorial plaques on the pavement in front of houses that previously belonged to people who were deported by the Nazis during the war.
  • At number 3, another noteworthy feature of Stationsstraat is the monumental 1917 building that once housed the Rijkslandbouwschool (“National Agricultural School”). Subjects related to the farming business, such as land cultivation and livestock farming, were taught here.
  • Via Boslaan, you find yourself on Matenpad. Here you will find dolmen D45 on the right side of the path. These dolmens are the remnants of stone burial chambers roughly 5,400 years old. This dolmen has a length of 18 metres—almost making it the largest dolmen in the Netherlands in terms of its length.
  • Continue until you reach the end of Matenpad. Take a right and then a left to ultimately end up on Familiepad. You can follow this path through the Emmerdennen’s diverse landscape. There are benches at regular intervals and picnic tables at the most beautiful spots. There are information panels along the route with all kinds of interesting factoids about nature. You can also choose to shorten the route here.
  • After taking Familiepad or shortening the route, follow the bicycle path until you end up in Tonckenbosje. Along a road intersecting the route, Veenkampenweg, there is a statue—called “Lost in Wonder”—by artists Marée Blok and Bas Lugthart in the garden of residential and care complex De Oostermarke. This statue is of a small dog that has been sculpted from one solid piece of granite.
  • Via Angelsloërstraat and Zonneweg, walk towards Kerkhoflaan. Here you find an old cemetery, founded in 1829. Its last funeral took place in 1971. A lot has changed at the cemetery since 2010. These days it’s a park with restored funerary monuments.
  • Via Wilhelminastraat, you return to Hoofdstraat. The building with the name Kantongerecht immediately stands out. This building is one of Emmen’s most attractive and oldest buildings. It has fabulous columns and a characteristic height-width ratio. In 1855 notary Lambertus Kniphorst had this building built as his private home. The building’s Indian influences are because of family members staying in India at the time. In 1911 the cantonal court settled in this building.

• Want to walk some more? A walk through the old animal park belonging to Rensenpark is also an option. Willem Oosting started a zoo here in his parents’ back garden in 1935. Since 2016 the animal park has been located at the edge of the city’s centre and is now called WILDLANDS Adventure Zoo Emmen.