Anjum - Ezumazijl - Weerd Convent | Circular Walk 3 of the Bonifatius Kloosterpad Monastery Route

The history of the old tidal landscape south of the little village of Anjum is written on the land. Farmers and monks built dams to prevent the fertile soil from being carried off and deposited in the delta at high tide. The old farmland has since been reclaimed by nature.

Near the village of Oostmahorn you look out over Lauwersmeer National Park, a nature reserve with 5000 hectares of reed beds, marshland, swamp forest and rough grassland. 

You walk south to the lock at Ezumazijl. There has been a lock here since the Middle Ages. It was built to regulate the water level in the surrounding polders.

Ezumakeeg nature reserve nearby is popular among birdwatchers. In this transitional zone between water and land there are always many birds. 

Heading inland again, you follow the winding Nijlânswei to a bend of the Zuider Ee canal. From here you can see a small hill with a farm and a few scattered houses on it. This was where Weerd Convent once stood. This Norbertine convent was a daughter house of the Bonifatiusklooster monastery in Dokkum.

During the religious wars between the Protestants and the Catholics in the 16th century, the convent was plundered and burned to the ground. This raised area in the landscape is now all that remains of Weerd Convent.