The best walks and hikes around Margraten

Nowhere in Flanders will you find such a beautiful collection of half-timbered houses as in the hamlet of Veurs in Voeren. All these houses are mainly from the 18th and early 19th centuries and have for the most part been restored to their original condition. You will feel like you have traveled back a century in time as you wander around here.

Very beautiful small route without great difficulty

Saint Brigid, also known as Brigitte of Kildare, was born in the year 436 to Irish parents. Her father was chief of Leinster, an estate west of Dublin, and her stepmother belonged to the royal family of the O’Connors. According to most sources, her natural mother was a charming housemaid. Even as a little girl, she was noted for her exceptional beauty and also radiated an impressive piety. Therefore, she was given the Celtic name for light: Brighid or Bride. It is reflected in the English word bright, which means bright or shining. As a young woman, she was asked in marriage by many noblemen, but to the great despair of her father, who was bent on expanding his territory, she repeatedly declined. From a young age, she wanted to dedicate herself entirely to the new doctrine of Christianity that was emerging in Ireland at the time. When she was struck by an eye disease that disfigured her beautiful face, her suitors declined, and her father granted her an "oak forest estate" where she could live as a recluse. This place is called Çill-Dra', which means something like "hermitage under the oak." Soon, several young women joined her, likely to escape the yoke of the then-common practice of arranged marriages. This community of recluses was commissioned by Bishop Machilas, nephew of St. Patrick, to further Christianize Ireland and mainland Europe. Saint Brigid can thus be considered the founder of the first female monastic order in Western Europe. She died at an advanced age around the year 520. Her feast day is February 1st. Many legends surround Saint Brigid, often interwoven with ancient Celtic sagas. One of them tells of her presence at the birth of Christ in the stable in Bethlehem. Mary is said to have entrusted her with the care of Jesus for a time. The stable contained not an ox, but a cow, which Brigid milked. With this milk, she saved the Holy Family from starvation. For this reason, Brigid is sometimes called the "foster mother" of Christ or the "Mother of God of the North." It is also why she is usually depicted with a cow and is the patron saint of cattle herders. She is specifically invoked against livestock diseases. Text by Manu Brouwers, Stichting Heem & Groen Noorbeek Source and more information at https://www.kerkgebouwen-in-limburg.nl/kerken/noorbeek/brigida

Noorbeek has been a place of pilgrimage for Saint Brigid or Saint Briej since 1634. Farmers come there to ask for help from Brigid, patron saint of cattle, among other things, to protect their livestock—and thus their lives and income—from disease. Yet, our village saint of Noorbeek (and you really can't miss her) and simultaneously the female patron saint of Ireland, is not originally Catholic. Although she is known as the founder of the Kildare Monastery in Ireland (and nurse of the poor with the help of her cow), the stories told about her are often a Christianization of the stories of the Celtic goddess Brigid, also known as Brigantia and Brighde. In that Celtic tradition, she is an exalted goddess, daughter of the Dagda (the Father of the Gods), associated with spring, fertility, poetry, medicine, and blacksmithing. And February 1st is known as Imbolc, one of the four major festivals of the pre-Christian Celtic calendar associated with the fertility of the earth. When you think of her feast day, you might also think of snowdrops.

Strictly speaking, this highlight is dedicated to the Chapel of St. Brigid, which lies in front of the churchyard on the east side; In practice, however, there are photos of both the chapel and the church behind it, which is also dedicated to St. Brigid, the village saint and patron saint of Ireland. And that St. Brigid's Church is located on the bend in the main road to Mheer. Opposite the east side is the village square, and on the left is a road leading to the Voer region. The church is situated on a hill, supported by a marlstone retaining wall. The church is a three-aisled basilica, begun in Romanesque style but rebuilt in phases in Gothic style. It is one of the few village churches in South Limburg that has preserved some of its medieval atmosphere and retained its main 15th-century forms. According to the parish archives, St. Brigid's Church was a branch church of the parish church in 's Gravenvoeren (Belgium) until 1614. This church, which in turn was a separation from the church of St. Martin's Voeren, was donated to the Our Lady Minster of Luxembourg City in 1083 by Conrad I of Luxembourg, lord of the land of Daehlem. Originally, the parish also included Mheer, which separated in 1626. From 1616 until the order's dissolution in 1773, the Jesuits of Maastricht held the right of collation of the church and the right of tithing, which they had inherited from the Our Lady Minster in Luxembourg. It is known that the church was plundered by soldiers of William of Orange in 1568. Source: The Dutch Monuments of History and Art. The Province of Limburg / South Limburg. Third installment: Margraten, Mheer and Noorbeek, A.G. Schulte - National Heritage Agency, Zeist and Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, 1991. ISBN 90-6630-248-8. On February 3, 2021, a fire broke out, causing extensive damage to the sacristy, the chancel, and the organ. Source and more information: https://www.kerkgebouwen-in-limburg.nl/kerken/noorbeek/brigida

The church building is situated on a church hill surrounded by a churchyard. It is surrounded by a marlstone retaining wall. On the east side of the church is the St. Brigid Chapel. In the churchyard are 25 stone grave crosses dating from 1608-1765. A statue of the Sacred Heart by August Falise stands near the churchyard. Around the year 1000, the oldest church, built on an artificial hill, already stood on this site. Unhewn natural stone remains in the base of the tower, believed to date from the 11th/12th century. The tower may also have served as a defensive tower, a fortified building where villagers could retreat in case of danger.

Veurs (Sint-Martens-Voeren) is one of the places in the Voer region where the highest concentration of traditional half-timbered buildings has been preserved. The hamlet is known for: 18th- and early 19th-century half-timbered farmhouses, built with wooden posts and cross-beams, filled with loam, lime, brick, or flint, often whitewashed, with dark wooden beams visible. This combination—wood, loam, and flint—is typical of the Voer region and rarely found elsewhere in Flanders.

One of the many half-timbered houses in the area, but this one has a name: "het witte huuske" (the white house).