Once every four years something special happens at and around the ancient Slachtedyke more than 15.000 walkers and runners make a special tour of 42 kilometers through a cultural shop window of Fryslân. On their route they are being surprised with visual arts, theatre, dance and music. The villages alongside the route have an important role in the programming. Ofcourse there is room to enjoy the wideness and quiet of the beautiful landscape.
History
De Slachtedyk is a secondary dyke of the ancient Frisian Middelsee. As a serried dyke the Slachtedyk has been there for 500 years, but parts of de dyke wer built much earlier. The eldest date goes back to far before the year 1000. The youngest parts were built around 1200. In old part lies around de westside and southside of the polder (reclaimed land) of Easterein, one of the oldest embanked areas of Fryslân.
Winding through history
De Slachtedyk is a dyke that is alive and sinuous. On one hand that has to do with the fact that in the middle ages the area was a lânskip of high and low parts, of rift valleys and tidal creeks. On the other hand land owners have had their influence. The dyke builders were looking for high parts to start with a base height. But the land owners had to give their permission.
De Slachte tells
De Slachtedyk has a lot of history. Dyke houses with wooden block barns alongside the route tell about the maintenance and the usufruct of the road sides. And the ‘zijlen’ (lock bridges of which the openings could be closed of with beams) tell about the floods.
Walking and running on history
The Slachtemarathon means walking en running on history. From the seadyke in the North at Easterbierrum to the heart of Fryslân in Raerd, the ancient Slachtedyk measures the distance of a marathon: just more than 42 kilometres. In July of 2000 the first Slachtemarathon was organised. That was because of Simmer 2000, an event that was a reunion of Frisians from all over the world in Fryslân. With the first Slachtemarathon a history was born. Every four years there is a Slachtemarathon.