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FAAM

Front page of *De nieuwe gazet*, April 4, 1968 - Photo by RV

Everyone is helping with the fire at St. Paul's Church

The fear of natural disasters is not unfounded. It has been heightened by a few major disasters that have remained etched in the collective memory. These were mainly floods. For example, there was the storm surge of 1134, which turned what is now Zeeland in the Netherlands into an archipelago, but which also created the Zwin.

Kemmel Command Bunker - © Heuvelland Tourism - Photo by Carels

The Command Bunker Beneath the Kemmelberg

The Heuvelland and the region around Ypres were severely affected by World War I. The English writer Siegfried Sassoon gained worldwide fame with his anti-war poem “Memorial Tablet”—which includes the memorable lines “I died in Hell—(they called it Passchendaele).” Many soldiers who returned from the war suffered from shell shock.

The Last Judgment, Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1450–1516 – Musea Brugge, Groeningemuseum – © artinflanders.be, photo by Dominique Provost

Fear of hell

The fear of hell. For centuries, the image of a burning hell was used by church authorities to keep the faithful in line. They were often aided in this by artists, who tried to outdo one another with terrifying images. Just think of Hieronymus Bosch’s *The Hell*, a

Interior View of the Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent

Mentally Ill

Mental well-being is a top priority these days. That wasn’t the case for a long time; people with mental health issues were very often dependent on the charity of others. There are horror stories circulating about the treatment of so-called “insane” people. One of the most notorious places was the Geeraard de Duivelsteen in Ghent,

Sculpture of Lange Wapper at the entrance to Het Steen, 1962 - Photo by Albert Poels

Tormentors

Especially in the Middle Ages, there wasn’t much knowledge about all kinds of natural phenomena. People saw the hand of God in everything. That way of thinking was, of course, encouraged by the Catholic Church. Thanks to that superstition, the faithful could easily be kept in line. One of those malevolent phenomena was the

Jazz Bilzen, 1967 - Wikimedia Commons

World-Class Music Festivals

In the 1960s, progressive young people wanted to break away from their parents’ traditional society. They rebelled with their casual clothing and loud music. Abroad, young people gathered at music festivals. Belgium soon followed suit. The first festival was Jazz Bilzen, held in a quiet village near Hasselt.

Carillon in the bell tower in Bergues, French Flanders

The carillon is playing

The carillon is a quintessentially Flemish musical instrument. The original carillon from 1510 in the town hall of Oudenaarde was likely the oldest. From Flanders, the carillon spread throughout the Low Countries in the 16th century, and later to many other regions, even reaching the United States in the 20th century.