The best city hikes and walks around Tielt

Each of these small sacred monuments, which one encounters again and again along the way – albeit in very different forms – is for the devout Christian not only a symbol of the death that Jesus Christ suffered, but also of his resurrection from the dead. The promise also applies to us: at the end of our earthly lives, we will be called by God, the Lord of heaven and earth, into 'eternal life'. Of course, we do not yet know what this will actually look like. Perhaps a thought formulated by Christiane Völkel might help the wanderer lingering before this cross (with the body of the crucified Christ, i.e., a crucifix): "We can try to think that this moment is life in its fullest sense, in which we are overwhelmed by joy and this moment of joy lasts 'forever.' We can think in this direction if we want to understand what we may expect from eternal life and from the hope that is promised to us. I find this thought somehow comforting."

Enjoy a pleasant stay in the greenery

Was not accessible at the end of January due to the toad migration. Alternative possible via quiet roads

Devotional cross at the entrance to the farm known as "Goed ter Meersch", probably 19th century and reportedly moved during renovation work on the farm. Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/86525

Artwork by Hubert Minnebo (°1940), donated to the city in 2008 by the local Rotary Club branch on the occasion of their 50th anniversary.

On 8 September 1944, the Poles liberated Tielt. They were part of the First Polish Armoured Division, nicknamed The Black Brigade, and were under the command of General Stanislaw MACZEK (whose statue can be found elsewhere in Tielt, in the Deken Darrasstraat). This Polish Armoured Division, formed in Scotland, landed at Arromanches and Courseulles in France between 30 July and 4 August 1944. At the time, it consisted of 13,000 soldiers, 4,050 vehicles and 381 Sherman, Stuart and Cromwell tanks. On 8 September 1944, the 24th Lancers Regiment and the 8th Hunters Battalion, nicknamed The Bloody Shirts, together with motorised troops and anti-tank artillery, conquered Tielt after bloody fighting. In the city centre, 8 Polish soldiers and 5 people from Tielt lost their lives. 25 German soldiers were killed. From their landing in August 1944, the Poles liberated numerous French, Belgian and Dutch cities. On 5 May 1945, they finally occupied the German port of Wilhelmshaven. This monument bears the motto of the Polish liberators "Non omnis moriar", "I will not die completely". Source: information board on site

The name "Santvoorts reke" refers to the former textile factory Van Zandtvoorde, built in the spacious garden of the owner's home. That house was on the Hoogstraat (now number 34); the garden reached to what is now the Europalaan. After the factory closed in 1844, the whole was converted by Van Zantvoorde into eighteen houses with a floor, so-called "Santvoorts reke". Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/themas/10862

These three houses next to each other do not look 19th century at all, but the many relief stones and sculptures built into the windows caught my attention. I looked it up: This row of houses is known as "Santvoorts reke" and was initially built in traditional style, but after the bombing during the Second World War they were thoroughly renovated. In the facade cartouches you can read old Flemish proverbs. Most of them are still well known to us: "As the clock ticks at home...", "Time flies fast, ..."; the third was completely unknown to me (but Dirk Van Tieghem apparently wrote a book with almost the same name about Guido Gezelle). Furthermore, you can read a Flemish coat of arms and two Flemish-minded phrases: "My Flanders speaks its own language; Good gave each country its own." and "And let them be rich, let them be bald, she is Flemish and she is mine". I could not find the different heads. Source: https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/themas/10761