Waaiburg
When renovation work began at the Waaiburg, a quasi-intact timber-framed rear façade was discovered behind front walls and false ceilings. This was the beginning of a long search for the history of the historic buildings on the site, which we managed to uncover bit by bit. Thanks to historical research and scientific analysis, we have come to know the long history of the site better in recent years. The site surrounding the central historic building lasts about five hundred years and has four major phases.
Phase I: House with moat and commercial buildings (1533-1633)
Dendrochronological research revealed that the wood used to erect the roof truss was cut down between 1533 and 1536. Shortly afterwards it was used in the construction of the Waaiburg.
Presumably this is already a second construction phase and the wooden trusses on the ground floor and floor 1 are possibly older. Historical sources mention the Waaiburg as early as 1503. In any case, in the sixteenth century a fairly large three-story (townhouse) and several commercial buildings were built. The house was not made of brick, but of a wooden lattice structure and loam. It is this wooden structure that has been largely preserved until today. In the center of the house was a large fireplace, traces of which are still visible today. On the ground floor, several beams are decorated with a so-called pear bead motif, which was in use in Flanders from the end of the fifteenth century. The site was walled in, which also indicated a certain affluence of these first owners.
The size of the house (8 bays and 2 floors), its location outside the village center (about 150m from St. Amand's Church) and the presence of a moat (which had no military use but was a status symbol) suggests that the seat of the local seigniory was located here. In the late Middle Ages, the wild heath and forest lands around Geel were transformed into agricultural land. The owner of the seigniory-the noble lord or lady-was the initiator of the lucrative enterprise.
🕑 15 minutes
