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Historical sites

Historical sites

The Zimmertoren in Lier with its astronomical clock - Wikimedia Commons, photo by Benoit Brummer

Tower Clocks of Lier

The city of Lier in the province of Antwerp boasts not one, but two remarkable timepieces. The Church of St. Gummarus is home to one of the oldest wrought-iron tower clocks in Europe. It was purchased in Maastricht in 1702 and, according to recent research, dates back to 1395. But Lier is also known for

Geert Bourgeois, Flemish Minister of Integration, at the El Fath Mosque, 2012 - © Belga

The El Fath Mosque in Ghent

Anyone who leaves their native region and settles elsewhere always brings their cultural and religious customs with them. As early as the interwar period, people from North Africa and Turkey came to Belgium to work in the mines, but their numbers increased dramatically, especially starting in the 1960s. With them

De Liermolen - © het MOT, Grimbergen

The Liermolen

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a miller? You can still train to become one in Flanders! Or you can visit a mill that’s still in operation. There are dozens of them. For example, the Liermolen in Grimbergen. It’s a grain watermill on the Maalbeek dating from the

The village center of Bokrijk in Haspengouw - Wikimedia Commons, photo by Bart Bosmans

Bokrijk Open-Air Museum

The decision to protect cultural heritage often comes only when that heritage is in danger of disappearing. In the first half of the 20th century, no highways yet crisscrossed the Flemish countryside, and ribbon development had only just begun to gain ground. Yet some people noted that a way of life,

The interior of the Gravenkapel - © Wikimedia Commons

The Counts' Chapel

The Counts’ Chapel is part of the Church of Our Lady in Kortrijk. The Flemish Count Louis of Male had it built in 1371. The chapel owes its name to the niches containing painted portraits of the counts of Flanders, who from the 9th to the early 15th century were a (relatively)

Gravestone of Abraham Neuman, born in Poland, 1917 – Wikimedia Commons, photo by Moïse Abramovitch

Dieweg Jewish Cemetery

Anyone who goes to live abroad may also die there. It is no coincidence that perhaps the oldest physical trace of the Jewish presence in Belgium is a gravestone dating from 1255–1256. It was found in Tienen and bears a Hebrew inscription: “A stone was engraved and placed at the head of

The start of the Tour of Flanders in 1928 - KOERS. Cycling Museum, Roeselare

The Old Kwaremont

On the first weekend of April, crowds line the Oude Kwaremont. The cobblestone climb in Kluisbergen is a major crowd-puller for one of the most important cycling races of the year: the Tour of Flanders. It has only been part of the course since 1974. But in recent years, it has