Klooster Ter Apel

Ter Apel was founded in 1465 as a house of Crosier canons on a sandy ridge in the Westerwolde bog country, and it is the only late-medieval rural monastery in the Netherlands still standing more or less complete - almost every other Dutch monastery was destroyed at the Reformation or later. It survived because after 1600 the buildings were kept in use as a Protestant parsonage and church rather than demolished. What remains is three wings around a cloister with vaulted walks, the church with a rood screen, choir stalls and a sacrament house, and the herb and monastery gardens replanted to old plans. It has been a museum since 1933. Around it is woodland and the restored Westerwolde stream valley, and the German border is a couple of kilometres away. The setting - a monastery in the woods with no town around it - is much of the point.

What you actually see

• The only rural monastery left - late medieval, standing near-complete since 1465.
• A vaulted cloister - three wings around the walk with the church attached.
• Choir stalls and a sacrament house - the medieval church fittings surviving.
• Replanted gardens - herb and monastery beds to old plans.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Closed Mondays and reduced in winter. It is remote - public transport is slow and infrequent. The village of Ter Apel is small. The buildings are simple; the significance is that they exist at all.

Nearby

The Westerwolde stream valley is around it; Bargerveen is south-west.