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Van Gogh NP walking tour Nuenen

2 hour 10 minutes (10.0 km)
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This varied walking tour (10 km) in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh takes you through the beautiful countryside and along the heritage of Nuenen. You will pass through the lovely nature reserve Nuenens Broek with woods, fields, meadows, vernal pools and the Hooidonkse Beek valley. Further on in this walk you'll pass old hamlets and the church village of Gerwen, where Vincent drew the Sint-Clemens church. You can't get any closer to Vincent than this!

A masterful open-air museum
Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen from December 1883 …

This varied walking tour (10 km) in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh takes you through the beautiful countryside and along the heritage of Nuenen. You will pass through the lovely nature reserve Nuenens Broek with woods, fields, meadows, vernal pools and the Hooidonkse Beek valley. Further on in this walk you'll pass old hamlets and the church village of Gerwen, where Vincent drew the Sint-Clemens church. You can't get any closer to Vincent than this!

A masterful open-air museum
Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen from December 1883 to November 1885. It was here that he produced almost a quarter of his total oeuvre and painted his first masterpiece: The Potato Eaters. Nuenen and its surroundings can be seen as an open-air museum. Nowhere else are there so many buildings, sculptures and landscapes which have a direct relationship with Van Gogh. If you want to learn even more about Vincent's Brabant period, then visit the Van Gogh Village Museum, the starting point of this tour!

Van Gogh National Park
The Van Gogh walking tours in the Van Gogh National Park immerse you in the landscape Vincent van Gogh fell in love with. Enjoy the meandering streams, extensive nature reserves, farmland, country estates and greenery that stretches out right into the heart of the villages and towns. The locals are working together to preserve and expand this beautiful, healthy and green living environment. With Vincent van Gogh as their guide. 

Finding the way with numbered junctions
This Van Gogh NP walking tour has been mapped out using the local numbered junction system. You can recognise the route by the signs with the words 'Van Gogh National Park', which you will find on every junction post. Follow the hiking junctions: 04 - 36 - 48 - 49 - 45 - 89 - 78 - 51 - 52 - 53 - 59 - 36 - 04. Between the junctions you can follow the junction system signposts.

Routes reporting point
If you find something wrong with the signage or the route itself, you can report it via the Brabant junction route reporting point. You can also call 0800 4050050 free of charge.

Take a look

Sights on this route

Starting point: Berg 29
5671 CA Nuenen
1

Van Gogh Village Museum

Berg 29
5671 CA Nuenen
Nuenen is an ‘outdoor museum’ with no fewer than 21 buildings and landscapes which have a direct relationship with Van Gogh in Nuenen. He produced a quarter of his total works in Nuenen, including his first masterpiece The Potato Eaters!
Van Gogh Village Museum
04
2

Saint Clement Church Nuenen

Park 53
5671 GC Nuenen
Saint Clement Church Nuenen
3

Weaver’s house

Berg 40
5671CC Nuenen
Weaver’s house
4

Van Gogh Church Nuenen

Papenvoort 2
5671 CR Nuenen
Vincent van Gogh’s father preached in this church in Nuenen.
Van Gogh Church Nuenen
5
Berg
Nuenen
6

Monument Vincent van Gogh

Berg 44
5671CA Nuenen
Monument Vincent van Gogh
7

Salon Nune Ville

Berg 24
5671 CC Nuenen
Follow in the actual footsteps of Vincent van Gogh and Margot Begemann in Salon Nune Ville: the family home of Margot, the woman with whom Vincent experienced a dramatic love affair.
Salon Nune Ville
36
8

The Potato Eaters’ cottage

Gerwenseweg 4
5674 SG Nuenen
The farmhouse belonging to the De Groot family stood here in Vincent’s time. Vincent painted the farmhouse and the family acted as models for countless studies of peasants’ heads and hands.
The Potato Eaters’ cottage
9
Gerwenseweg
Nuenen
48
10

Nuenens Broek

Nuenens Broek
Lissevoort
Nuenen
Nuenens Broek
11

Hooidonkse beek

Hooidonkse beek
Roosdonken
Nuenen
Hooidonkse beek
49 45
12
Lankveld
Nuenen
89 78 51 52
13

Saint Clement Church Gerwen

Heuvel 23
Gerwen
Saint Clement Church Gerwen
53 59 36 04
14

Van Gogh Village Museum

Berg 29
5671 CA Nuenen
Nuenen is an ‘outdoor museum’ with no fewer than 21 buildings and landscapes which have a direct relationship with Van Gogh in Nuenen. He produced a quarter of his total works in Nuenen, including his first masterpiece The Potato Eaters!
Van Gogh Village Museum
End point: Berg 29
5671 CA Nuenen

Directions

Starting point: Berg 29
5671 CA Nuenen
  • At the little square near the starting point of this walk you will see the very first monument unveiled for Vincent in the Netherlands. It was made by Hildo Krop and was unveiled on Saturday 30 July 1932. Forty years after his death, this monument gave Vincent the recognition of a master painter in Nuenen. The square is also home to the old linden tree and the verger’s house.  
  • There were many weaver's cottages in Nuenen in Vincent van Gogh’s day. Only one of them still exists. It was probably built in 1763 or earlier and is now a national monument. It is a good example of what the small houses of the Nuenen home weavers looked like. Vincent was fascinated by the poor weavers. He drew and painted them at work at their looms. The verger of the Van Gogh church used to live in this house, hence the name ‘Verger’s house’. 
  • In the village centre of Nuenen you will find the Reformed Church, where Vincent's father was a minister. Vincent painted the Reformed Church for his mother. She had broken her leg while getting off the train in Helmond. Vincent thought: "If mother can't go to church, I'll bring church to mother."
  • The route leads you along Hooidonkse Beek, a side stream of the river Dommel, which flows through the Nuenens Broek nature reserve. Most of the stream has been straightened, but here it has been allowed to meander picturesquely. In Nuenen, the stream flows through a city park.
  • The Nuenens Broek nature reserve used to be a swamp area. Today it is being returned to that more natural state. Poplars are being felled in some places, dead wood remains and alders, oaks and wild plant species are being planted or allowed to grow spontaneously. On the south side you'll find a vernal pool, a great habitat for amphibians.
  • Vincent van Gogh painted the house in which the De Groot family lived. They posed for the painting The Potato Eaters. Vincent called these houses “human nests". He spent a whole winter here studying the heads, hands and objects of peasants in preparation for his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters.
  • The farming way of life continued to fascinate Vincent. He painted farm landscapes, farmers, peasants and home weavers. Pieter Dekkers lived in the house on De Rijt during Vincent's stay in Nuenen. Vincent painted Pieter Dekkers at work at his loom.
  • Windmill De Roosdonck can be seen in the background in various sketches and drawings by Vincent van Gogh. In one of his paintings, for example, you see Pieter Dekkers at his loom and through the window you see windmill De Roosdonck.
  • In the hamlet of Het Hool you can still feel and taste the atmosphere of the vast landscape as it was when Vincent lived in Nuenen. Fields, meadows and 'old' farms define the landscape.
  • The old St. Clemens church in the church village of Gerwen dates from 1620 and was drawn by Vincent van Gogh.
  • In 1884 Vincent rented two rooms from Johannes Schafrath, verger of the Holy Clemens Church in Nuenen. One to paint in and one for his collection of farm tools and bird nests. After his father's death in March 1885, he also stayed there to sleep.
End point: Berg 29
5671 CA Nuenen
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  • 36
  • 48
  • 49
  • 45
  • 89
  • 78
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 59
  • 36
  • 04
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