Zuidlaren

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caption = The town centre (dark green) and the statistical district (light green) of Zuidlaren in the municipality of Tynaarlo.

Zuidlaren (Noord Drents: "Zuudlaoren") is a village in the province of Drenthe in the Northern Netherlands. Zuidlaren has just over 10,000 inhabitants and is situated on natural heightened land which is called the Hondsrug.

The village is part of the municipality of Tynaarlo. Formerly the village had its own municipality called Zuidlaren, but in 1998 Zuidlaren merged with Eelde and Vries. The new municipality was called "Zuidlaren" at first, but was renamed to Tynaarlo in 1999. [Ad van der Meer and Onno Boonstra, "Repertorium van Nederlandse gemeenten", KNAW, 2006. [http://www.knaw.nl/cfdata/publicaties/detail.cfm?boeken__ordernr=20061061] ] Tynaarlo is the name of a much smaller village than Zuidlaren and is located between the 3 largest villages of the municipality: Eelde, Zuidlaren and Vries. The new town hall is located in Vries, which replaced the Laarwoud town hall in 2004.

ights of interest

A major industry in Zuidlaren is tourism, because of the varied cultural sights and attractions.

In the centre of the village are different important statues. The statue of a horse and two horsetraders has once been revealed by Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands during the Zuidlaardermarkt.

There is also the statue of Berend Botje, which refers to Lodewijk van Heiden (1773-1850), a Dutch seafarer. In Zuidlaren Berend Botje is better known as a song for children to be learned in kindergarten.

Another statue is located in front of the Prins Bernhardhoeve (PBH), which is a large exhibition complex. The statue makes reference to the fire that destroyed a big part of the PBH in 1986, the statue is called 'Vriendschap Vereeuwigd' ('Friendship Immortalized'). It was so named by R.C. Zuidlaren-Anloo, the local Rotary club, because the payment for the statue was donated by a Rotary club from Achim, Germany.

The memorial of World War II is situated in front of the former town hall 'Laarwoud'. The annual commemoration of the inhabitants of Zuidlaren who died during World War II is always on the 4th of May, the day before Liberation Day. The commemoration is also for the sake of people who suffer from wars today.

The windmill of Zuidlaren is called 'De Wachter', it is in the far east of the village. The mill specializes in corn and oil and has its own bakery and museum.

Zuidlaren is also known for its many village greens (Dutch: brinken) .Village greens in Zuidlaren are mostly small to sizeable grasslands with a stand of trees. The largest village green is in the centre of the village and is located next to a large square.

Events

One of the most well known annual events in Zuidlaren is the Zuidlaardermarkt, an annual event with a large cattle market, a country market and a fair. There also are other markets, like the weekly small country market on Fridays and the 'Oud-Drentsche Markt' which is in summer season on Wednesdays. Another large event is NIC Zuidlaren, an international horse riding competition.

The events in the village are often organized by the 'Zuidlaarder Ondernemers Vereniging' (ZOV). The ZOV is an organization of volunteers and is sponsored by entrepreneurs of Zuidlaren.

References

External links

* [http://www.kuijsten.de/atlas/dr/zuidlaren.html Map of the former municipality in 1868]