The Sint-Lievensmonstertoren, better known as the Dikke Toren, is the sight you notice before you find your way into Zierikzee. It is a massive, free-standing Gothic tower, 62 metres high, with a base so broad that it looks less unfinished than deliberately stubborn.
Climb it if it is open. The reward is a view over the tiled roofs, the harbour, the flat Zeeland landscape, and the long reach of the Oosterschelde. Even from the ground it is worth lingering here, because the tower explains Zierikzee better than any plaque: a small town with once-large ambitions.