Mander Circles

The "Mander Circles" is the largest landscape art project in the Netherlands. The work of art consists of 2 circular areas and was created in the 1930s. They are located on the northern Manderheide near the Twente village of Mander.

If you didn't know, there isn't much to see in the landscape.

The Mander circles were commissioned by textile manufacturer and large landowner Gerhard Jannink. He brought the idea with him from North America, where he saw the advantages of round fields. The machines worked from the center in a spiral manner. Jannink alternately cultivated rye, oats, potatoes and later corn here. When that was no longer profitable, the land was sold to Landschap Overijssel in 1991.
Artist Paul de Kort was asked to design the area. One circle was given a 'fencing' and a spiral labyrinth in the center. The other was given a wall with a raised area in the middle like a burial mound, with fifty juniper bushes on it. This project was completed in 1999.
Now, heathland cows graze there to maintain the nutrient-poor heathland. However, there is quite a lot of storage within the circles: the cows still have something to do!