history

The Hedge Church of Ghent Shaped the History of the Low Countries

The old abbey church of St-Bavo in Ghent has vanished. It was demolished by the Spanish in the 16th century, leaving behind an empty space. But then in 2006, the city gardens department planted tall, clipped hornbeam hedges to mark the outline of the vanished 12th-century church.

In the summer of 2024, a small ceremony was held in Ghent’s hedge church to unveil a memorial stone. It recalls the wedding that took place here on 19 June 1369. This largely forgotten event brought together Margaretha van Male of Flanders and Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy.

The Flemish writer Bart Van Loo believes the wedding deserves to be celebrated. He persuaded the city of Ghent to place a memorial stone at the site. In his new book on the Burgundians, Stoute schoenen, he describes the marriage as laying the foundations of the Low Countries. “Every Flemish person should come here once,” he argues.

“Remember the date,” he tells listeners to his podcast. “The nineteenth of June 1369.” He repeats the date, again and again, like an over-excited history teacher.

He has every reason to get excited. It was, he argues, the most important date in the history of the Low Countries.

• abbey
• Ghent
• St Bavo