Look into the Bruch
The beginning of a journey through the cultural heritage sites
Where else can you find this? You drive for half an hour through shady avenues without seeing a single car. Perhaps agricultural machinery, combine harvesters or tractors pulling fully loaded trailers with fresh grain, because it is harvest time in the Oderbruch. It is also perhaps the most beautiful time of the year to discover this river polder, which is unique in Germany. The Oderbruch can be crossed on foot, by bike or by car, even by canoe.
The Bruch, and not the Bruch, is a rural cultural landscape with a long tradition of settlement. The Prussian King Frederick II, affectionately known as the Old Fritz in the Oderbruch, gave new impetus to settlement around 270 years ago by draining the largely swampy landscape. The land gained was given to so-called colonists, among others, who were to farm it from then on. A network of ditches, old oak and linden avenues, typical Loose farmsteads, and the colonists' villages have been preserved and bear witness to the appropriation of the river landscape by its inhabitants.
The Oderbruch has many special places for those interested and some of them, 34 to be exact, have now been designated as cultural heritage sites by the Oderbruch Museum in Altranft. These places bring the cultural peculiarities of the landscape to life and invite you to travel to the Oderbruch, get to know it better and understand it. If you want to know more, we recommend taking a look at the small travel guide "Look into the Bruch". The pocket-sized booklet has recently been re-released. It presents all current cultural heritage sites with a short description, contact persons, opening times and an overview map. Local history rooms and village museums, archaeological and architectural monuments, pumping stations or ship and windmills as well as churches and farms are waiting to be discovered. The Oderbruch Museum in Altranft is recommended as an ideal starting point for the trip. The cultural heritage sites are presented there in a small exhibition. The museum also has a lot of additional information and numerous exhibits from this special cultural landscape.
Join us on a journey: We will introduce individual cultural heritage sites and guide you through the Oderbruch. Stay tuned, the series will continue.
For more information about the Oderbruch Museum and the cultural heritage in the Oderbruch, please see here.