Qualla: Olst-Wijhe

Olst-Wijhe: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dupor00, CC BY-SA 3.0. In a meadow outside the village of Eikelhof stands a small stone cross. The Gothic Dutch carved into its face has been there since 1493: IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1493, JOHAN LUCKENS DIED HERE, PRAY FOR THE SOUL. Nobody alive knows what Johan Luckens did or why he died on that road. He was murdered. Someone - his killer, perhaps; or his family; or the community he died near - paid for the stone, set it in the ground, and asked passing travelers to remember him for as long as they walked by. They have, for more than five centuries.

Read more: Olst-Wijhe on Qualla

Image: Dupor00 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Olst-Wijhe: Two Old Towns, One New Name

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Onderwijsgek, CC BY-SA 2.5 nl. Olst-Wijhe is a recent invention built on ancient stock. The two main towns it joins - Olst and Wijhe - have been around since before there was a Netherlands. Olst is believed to have been founded in the 7th century and is first mentioned in chronicles in 947, as Holsto. Wijhe su...

Read more: Olst-Wijhe on Qualla

Image: Onderwijsgek | CC BY-SA 2.5 nl

Olst-Wijhe: Bricks, Cattle, and the IJssel

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Calips, CC BY-SA 3.0. The river dominates everything here. The IJssel partly flows through the municipality and partly forms its border with Gelderland, and the towns turn their backs to the rest of the world to face the water. For centuries the local economy ran on what the floodplains offered: fruit...

Read more: Olst-Wijhe on Qualla

Image: Calips | CC BY-SA 3.0

Olst-Wijhe: A Knickerbocker, a Cabaret Star, and a Chief Scout

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Holsto at Dutch Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Around 1648, a child was born in one of these villages who would later cross the Atlantic to the Dutch colony of New Netherland and settle in the Hudson Valley. His name was Harmen Jansen Knickerbocker, and his descendants would become so prominent in old New York that Washington...

Read more: Olst-Wijhe on Qualla

Image: Holsto at Dutch Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Olst-Wijhe: Mansions, Windmills, and a Cable Ferry

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dupor00, CC BY-SA 3.0. Country mansions dot the wooded interior - Groot Hoenlo, Klein Hoenlo, Nijendal, De Haere, Wijnbergen, De Hei, and Nijenhuis - most of them eighteenth-century, most still in private hands. The grounds are usually open to walkers. Nijenhuis, near the Raalte border, has become an a...

Read more: Olst-Wijhe on Qualla

Image: Dupor00 | CC BY-SA 3.0