Zuidlaren

Zuidlaren
The church of Zuidlaren
Coat of arms
Coordinates: 53°5′39″N 6°41′4″E / 53.09417°N 6.68444°E / 53.09417; 6.68444Coordinates: 53°5′39″N 6°41′4″E / 53.09417°N 6.68444°E / 53.09417; 6.68444
Country	Netherlands
Province	Drenthe
Municipality	Tynaarlo
Population (31 december 2007)	10,080

Zuidlaren (Noordenvelds: Zuudlaoren) is a village in the province of Drenthe in the Northern Netherlands. Zuidlaren has just over 10,000 inhabitants and is situated on natural heightened land which is called the Hondsrug.

The village is part of the municipality of Tynaarlo. Formerly the village had its own municipality called Zuidlaren, but in 1998 Zuidlaren merged with Eelde and Vries. The new municipality was called "Zuidlaren" at first, but was renamed to Tynaarlo in 1999.Tynaarlo is the name of a much smaller village than Zuidlaren and is located between the 3 largest villages of the municipality: Eelde, Zuidlaren and Vries. The new town hall is located in Vries, which replaced the Laarwoud town hall in 2004.

A major industry in Zuidlaren is tourism, because of the varied cultural sights and attractions.

In the centre of the village are a few important statues. The statue of a horse and two horsetraders has once been revealed by Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands during the Zuidlaardermarkt.

There is also the statue of Berend Botje, which refers to Lodewijk van Heiden (1773-1850), a Dutch seafarer. In Zuidlaren Berend Botje is best known as a song for children to be learned in kindergarten.

Another statue is located in front of the Prins Bernhardhoeve (PBH), which is a large exhibition complex. The statue refers to the fire that destroyed a big part of the PBH in 1986, the statue is called 'Vriendschap Vereeuwigd' ('Friendship Immortalized'). It was named like that by R.C. Zuidlaren-Anloo, the local Rotary club, because the payment for the statue was donated by a Rotary club from Achim, Germany.