Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a village in the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, with a population of 2,795 in 2020. It is located in the municipality of Steenwijkerland, about southwest of Steenwijk. As a popular Dutch tourist destination both within the Netherlands and abroad, Giethoorn is often referred to as "Dutch Venice" or the "Venice of the Netherlands".

History

Giethoorn used to be a pedestrian precinct, but nowadays exceptions are made. It became locally famous, especially after 1958, when the Dutch filmmaker Bert Haanstra made his famous comedy Fanfare there. In the old part of the village, there were no roads, and all transport was undertaken by water over one of the many canals. The lakes in Giethoorn were formed by peat digging.
Giethoorn was a separate municipality until 1973, when it became part of Brederwiede, which subsequently lost its municipality status in 2001 to merge with Steenwijk.

Tourism is the main source of income. The village is known as the Venice of the North or Venice of the Netherlands. Giethoorn has 176 bridges.

In 2015, the village of Giethoorn was chosen from 182 contenders across the world to achieve a place on the board of the new international edition of Monopoly. An online campaign led by local Village Marketeer Giethoorn.com resulted in enough votes to obtain spot number 21 in the special edition.