The best way to start exploring?
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Gateways & entrances
Gateways & entrances
Nature gateways & area entrances are excellent places to start and end your stay on De Groote Heide and more than a parking lot and route signpost. They are area hotspots that offer a variety of interesting and convenient attractions. Every gateway/entrance has its own charm, style and possibilities, and each in their own right is well worth a visit.
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Municipalities
Municipalities
Six municipalities have joined forces to both nourish 'their' natural property and raise awareness for it. These municipalities each have their own identity, charm and cultural history. From mills to abbeys, from smuggler's culture to artists' enclave, and from innovative cities to big and small shopping opportunities.
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Projects
Projects
Many different partners, including public area managers, the district water board and the municipalities, are working together to increase the beauty of nature border park De Groote Heide even further. From improving the main network of routes to developing nature gateways or "revitalising" nature itself.
Our story
Around 1900 the area that we now call De Groote Heide was a vast and continuous stretch of heathland, ranging from the southern city edge of Eindhoven to well across the Belgian border, a distance of no less than 20 kilometres! Since then, large parts have been cultivated and replaced by forest, meadows, fields and buildings. This has made the area more diverse and scenically attractive. Nature conservationists in both Belgium and the Netherlands are currently working to restore some of the area's former heathland glory.
About the park