Game and Nature

The Zwin Nature Reserve has been a protected landscape since 1939, when it was protected from agricultural development. In 1952 it became a Nature Reserve, the country’s oldest. Close to the Dutch border, around the coastal town of Knokke-Heist, t’ Zwin Nature Reserve was a novel idea back in 1952 and was the pioneering work of Count Léon Lippens.

THE MINNEWATER OR THE LAKE OF LOVE– Known in English as the Lake of Love, the Minnewater harks back to Bruges’ medieval heyday. This waterway was a dock from where ships as far afield as Russia came laden with cargoes of wool, wine, spices and silks and left loaded with Flemish cloth. A legend tells the story of a young and pretty girl named Minna who was in love with Stromberg, a warrior of a neighbouring tribe. Her father did not agree with her love and arranged her to marry a man of his choice.