Giethoorn is a village in the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 province of Overijssel

Overijssel

Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...

. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland

Steenwijkerland

Steenwijkerland is a municipality in the province Overijssel, in the eastern Netherlands.The municipality forms the entire northwesterly corner of the province. This area is called "the Head of Overijssel"...

, about 5 km southwest of Steenwijk

Steenwijk

Steenwijk is a city in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland. It is the largest town of the municipality.Steenwijk received city rights in 1327...

.

Giethoorn used to be a carfree town known in the Netherlands as "Venice of the North

Venice of the North

The term Venice of the North refers to various cities in northern Europe that contain canals, comparing them to Venice, Italy, which is renowned for its canals .* Saint Petersburg* Amsterdam* Bruges* Stockholm* Copenhagen* Hamburg...

" or "Venice of the Netherlands". It became famous, especially after 1958, when the Dutch film maker Bert Haanstra

Bert Haanstra

Bert Haanstra was a Dutch film and documentary director.Haanstra was born in the town of Holten and became a professional filmmaker in 1947. He won international acclaim with his short documentary Spiegel van Holland / Mirror of Holland, for which he received the Grand Prix du court métrage at the...

 made his famous comedy "Fanfare" there. Therefore, Giethoorn is an internationally well-known tourist attraction in the Netherlands. In the old part of the village, there were no road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

s (nowadays there is a cycling path), and all transport was done by water over one of the many canal

Canal

Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

s. The lakes in Giethoorn were formed by peat unearthing.

Giethoorn was founded by fugitives from the Mediterranean region in around AD 1230. Giethoorn was a separate municipality until 1973, when it became part of Brederwiede

Brederwiede

Brederwiede is a former municipality in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It was created in a merger of Blokzijl, Giethoorn, Vollenhove, and Wanneperveen in 1973, and existed until it became a part of Steenwijk in 2001 ....

.

External links

Map of the former municipality, around 1868.

• History of Giethoorn
• Giethoorn Travel Guide from VirtualTourist.com