Slochteren is a
municipalityA municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly denotes a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council.The notion of municipality...
in the northeastern
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
.
The municipality can be characterized as a chain of small villages dividing a mostly agricultural landscape. Having an agricultural background for at least a thousand years, the community houses for the most part commuters to nearby towns like
HoogezandHoogezand is a village in the municipality Hoogezand-Sappemeer, located in the principality Groningen in northeast Netherlands. The name refers to a higher sanded place in the peatlands cut through when the Winschoterdiep channel was dug. Near this channel in 1618 the village was founded.In the...
,
Groningen||-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |}Groningen is the capital city of the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. With a population of 185,000, it is by far the largest city in the north of the Netherlands....
and
DelfzijlDelfzijl is a municipality and city in the northeast of the Netherlands. It is situated on the left bank of the river Ems estuary, which forms the border with Germany.- Population centres :...
. The
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. realtors define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
FraeylemaborgFraeylemaborg is the most important of the Borgen in the province of Groningen, Netherlands.These places started in the Middle Ages to store harvests and protect these harvests from robbers. They were the only buildings that used stone and masonry . In due time they grew to centres of power and...
(a small 'castle', the oldest parts of which are dated in the Middle Ages) is located in Slochteren.
Natural gas field
Slochteren is in the center of a very large
natural gas fieldOil and natural gas are produced by the same geological process: anaerobic decay of organic matter deep under the Earth's surface. As a consequence, oil and natural gas are often found together...
, discovered in 1959, ensuring the position of the Netherlands as a major energy exporting country. The estimated gas reserves in 2009 was 2700 billion m³ (95,350 cubic foot).
Population centers
DenemarkenDenemarken is a small village in the municipality of Slochteren, in the Dutch province of Groningen....
, Froombosch,
HarkstedeHarkstede is a small village in Slochteren, Groningen , the Netherlands. Its name is "Haarkstee" in the local dialect, the Gronings. The name is probably meant as "Arkes Stee", which means "pleace for a ark = church". Harkstede has about 3000 inhabitants, what makes it one of the smaller villages...
,
HellumHellum is a small town in the municipality Slochteren. It has approximately 600 inhabitants. It has the oldest church in the municipality, which was built in approximately the year 1100....
, Kolham, Lageland, Luddeweer, Overschild, Schaaphok, Scharmer, Schildwolde,
SiddeburenSiddeburen is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Slochteren, about 10 km southwest of Delfzijl.Siddeburen was a separate municipality until 1826, when it was merged with Slochteren....
, Slochteren,
Steendam, Tjuchem, Woudbloem.
External links