Oirschot

Oirschot has one of the more monumental village centres in Brabant: a large open square, the Markt, planted with limes, with the Sint-Petrusbasiliek on it - a fifteenth-century Gothic church out of proportion to a village, whose spire was destroyed by lightning in 1627, leaving the tower blunt - and the Boterkerkje, a small twelfth-century church that lost its nave and stands as a tower and choir in the middle of the square. Four religious houses were founded here and the buildings survive, with a community still at one; that concentration is why the village looks the way it does. The Brabant tradition of large villages with monumental churches, funded by wool and later by farming, is legible here better than in most places. There are timber-framed houses, a windmill, and the woodland of the Oirschotse Heide around.

The main sights

• A lime-planted square - the Markt with the church and the tower-and-choir Boterkerkje.
• An oversized Gothic basilica - fifteenth-century, its tower blunt since the spire fell to lightning in 1627.
• Four convent foundations - the buildings surviving, with one community still there.
• Timber-framed houses - the older village fabric around the square.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

The church opens on limited hours and closes for services. Convent buildings are private or in use. The village is small and quiet - an afternoon. Buses from Eindhoven are infrequent at weekends.

Nearby

Eindhoven is south-east; the Oisterwijk fens are north-west.

Key facts