Borger, Exloo, Odoorn

Sheep herds, old farming settlements, dolmens and boulders; these archetypal images of Drenthe inspired various artists to create a variety of sculptures, often using the boulder as the basic material. You don't have to go to a museum for these rock-hard works of art, you just come across them along the cycle path along the way.

For example, in the middle of a vast heathland field just above Orvelte looms a huge and rocky work of art. A large boulder sits atop six tall granite pillars arranged in a circle. Like the Pantheon in Rome, the capstone has a carved domed interior with a hole high in the centre through which sunlight is allowed to shine. Standing directly under it, you only notice that it is in fact an artful sun temple, in the middle of nature that could not exist without the nourishing sunlight.

This 'Ode to the Sun' by sculptor Rob Schreefel is one of striking works of art around the towns of Odoorn, Exloo and especially hunebedden stronghold Borger. The area is full of boulders that were pushed by land ice from Scandinavia to the northern Netherlands during the penultimate ice age. But where the prehistoric Funnel Beaker people made dolmens with the huge boulders, modern sculptors use them as the basic material of impressive works of art: in the centre of Borger, for instance, a boulder rests high above the pavement around just one conical pillar, and along the cycle path just outside Exloo you will come across a work of art made of two smaller boulders with chiselled drawings resting - like an inverted dolmen - on top of a huge boulder. The drawings of this 'Mental Map' are reminiscent of both a map and the human brain.

Many of these rocky sculptures are part of the 'Art In Stone' art project in which the boulder was chosen as a 'metaphor for an artistic exploration'. A 'ramble', - as the project itself calls it - 'full of encounters with different views.' The agricultural landscape of Drenthe naturally lends itself ideally to such a special project.

Besides the ancient past, the slightly more recent ancient civilisations of Drenthe are also a source of inspiration for artists. Artist Lidy Blaauw, for instance, became completely enchanted by the rolling Drenthe horizon, which led to her artwork 'Imponderabilia' (everything that is imponderable), and self-taught sculptor Gerrit Santing made two sculptures of inseparable symbols of the agricultural history of the age-old village of Exloo and other sandy villages in Drenthe: Very recognisable are 'De Scheper' (shepherd of sheep) with his dog and the huge 'Boerhoorn'. A farmer would blow this historic 'signal instrument', made from a cow's horn, when he wanted to announce something to the rest of the community. Today, it still symbolises togetherness within the Drenthe community. Thus, the works of art you encounter on this cycle route form an artistic ribbon in several ways that simultaneously connect you with the Drenthe of then, and of now.


This Premium bicycle route was compiled by our editor: Wieger Favier.