What to see in Ommen, Netherlands

When getting in Ommen, you will find this town not very large, but it’s very cozy and lovely and the environment is really quiet and busy at the same time. One would question, what they might see in Ommen? Well, it’s not Amsterdam or Berlin or Tokyo or some other big city, where there are so many places to go, that you need, maybe, days to see them, but there are things to see in Ommen, too.

First of all, who doesn’t like the Netherlands’ windmills? And, of course, there are beautiful windmills in Ommen too - both in and outside the town.

Windmills

So, Ommen has five windmills in total, of which three are in the town itself. The windmills have been built in the nineteenth century. The town windmills are: the Lelie, built in 1846, nowadays still in full operation, Den Oordt, built in 1842, operating weekly, and the Konijnenbelt, which was built as early as in 1806, and it doesn’t work now. The name "Konijnenbelt" actually means "Rabbits hill", a "Belt" in Dutch means a hill on which a windmill is built. Village Vilsteren has its own windmill, so does Besthmen, where the windmill has recently been renovated. The Besthemermolen also has a windmill. Those windmills are pretty attractive and kind of reminds me of something like the 17-th century life that I’ve seen on pictures or drawings. I don’t know why I have that strange feeling about the windmills. When we saw one of the windmills, we got very excited and immediately wanted to take pictures. It was really beautiful in a way and, well, we’ve all seen those gorgeous windmills in cartoons or films and they have always been some kind of magical for us, I guess.

Well, if you want to see Ommen center, you will have to walk on a bridge, that is beautifully constructed over the Vecht connecting Ommen’s town center to its road to the railway station. Olde Vechte is on the other side of the town, so if I wanted to go to the center I had to walk on that bridge. It’s nothing fancy, just a wide bridge, where there went many trucks and it was kind of surprising, as I thought Ommen was not such a big deal, but it turned out, it is! Once it has even been a Hanze-town. This is known as Hanse League, which united some towns, mainly in North Germany and its neighborhoods and were like commercial association of towns.

Tin soldiers

As of Ommen itself, its Town Rights were awarded in 1248. So, on that bridge, near the end of it, you will find a strange figure, it kind of resembles some fish’s bones, it’s quite amazing. I don’t really know what it’s called, or what it represents, but I really like it. From there, if you look on your left, you will see a building once used to be a Town Hall, that is now Tin Soldiers’ Museum. It was built in 1828 as a Town Hall of Ommen, but then in 1982 the administration was moved and now it’s a museum. It has been tin soldiers’ museum since 1985. The museum is really unique. There are over 200, 000 historic tin figures and the museum is the only true national museum of “tin soldiers”from the Netherlands.

Nationaal Tinnen Figuren Museum is a great museum, which is worth seeing. I remember in my childhood, I had a book and there a boy had those tin figures and I didn’t get the idea, what these tin figures were and why it was so exciting and stuff like that. I didn’t know what a tin soldier looked like, etc. So, now when I saw it with my own eyes, I see why they could have been so special to this boy, especially when it was that period when children didn’t really have much of a choice in toys. But this isn’t a toy, it’s art and it’s fascinating! You will have a chance to see some panoramas too and four of the panoramas represent the Battle of Ane, that was in 1227.

Across the street, there is a grocery store called Jumbo, there are many things, including food, drinks, clothes, magazines, office things, kitchen things, etc. This is a supermarket we visited often and bought all the necessary stuff for us and I guess everyone in Olde Vechte bought everything here in Jumbo.

Churches

There are churches in Ommen, that you should see. In fact, the oldest building in Ommen is the Nederlands Hervormde (Dutch Reformed) or Reformed Church in the town center. Its tower is pretty high, looking down at Ommen. It was built in 1150 and since then it has been damaged by fire several times. There are two bells in the belfry, and they toll every night at 9 p. m., that is an old tradition, the “Maria Kleppen”, and it originates from the period, when the town had gates and the bells tolled to warn people to hurry and get in the town in time, or else the gate would close and they would stay outside of it. You should see the Roman baptismal font there, made of Bentheimer sandstone and the 17-th century pedestal.

You can see the Roman Catholic Church in Ommen. It’s a bit hidden in the houses, just West from the center. The building itself is from the 19-th century and the architecture is simple and modest, as there are not many Catholics there in north parts of the Netherlands.

The town itself is really beautiful and you can enjoy just by walking there. And you may discover many things to see there, too.

Photo gallery