Tijdschrift voor Historische Geografie - Volume 10, Issue 3, 2025

What does the bog do to you? Place meanings of raised bog landscapes since the Middle Ages

Few natural landscapes have been so negatively stereotyped as raised bogs. In the Netherlands, these wetlands covered large areas of land until well after the Middle Ages. Historical-geographical research has focused on large-scale reclamation and peat extraction and the traces these have left behind. This article describes specific meanings that bog landscapes have had to people, and to what extent we can explain these place meanings from the physical structure and materiality of bog landscapes. I address this from a cultural-geographical perspective, using examples from the Drenthe-Groningen Bourtanger Moor and the Brabant-Limburg Peel regions.

The cyclist as a driver of change. About the constructors of cycle paths and their influence on the cultural landscape

Nowadays bicycle paths play a prominent role in the development of spatial plans in the Netherlands. However, this was not the case at the end of the 19th century when bicycles gained in popularity. Because the available roads were suboptimal for cyclists a demand for proper cycling paths grew. As the national government had no interest in constructing paths, citizens took matters into their own hands. This article investigates the creation of bicycle paths in rural areas in the Netherlands between 1885 and the 60s of the 20th century, the role of private parties and the national government and how their ideas as to why and how a path should be constructed influenced the surrounding landscape.