Plaggenhut in De Peel by Geert Van Baelen

In the heart of the border region between Brabant and Limburg lies De Peel, a landscape once known as one of the most inhospitable places in the Netherlands. The picture of this plaggenhut (also known as a 'spitkeet') takes you straight back to the 19th century, the time of large-scale peat extraction.

A life of mud and sweat De Peel was then a vast raised bog: a soggy swamp full of mystique, but also full of poverty. For the workers who came to cut the "black gold" (peat), a stone house was an unaffordable luxury. Their shelter was literally pulled out of the ground. With walls of sods and a roof covered in heather and peat, these huts were damp, dark and draughty.

One with nature What emerges so beautifully in the picture is how these huts merged with their surroundings. In winter, the thick packet of heather and peat provided some insulation from the cutting Peel wind, while in summer it was often stiflingly hot inside. It was an existence on the edge of society, where people had to adapt completely to the vagaries of the peat.

Today, De Peel is a beautiful natural monument where silence reigns. But standing in front of this hut, with the misty horizon and rusty brown ferns all around you, you can still feel that raw history. It reminds us that this beautiful nature reserve was shaped by the hands of generations who lived and worked here in austerity.