Travel Guide Lissewege

12 km north of Bruges, access via road from Zeebrugge. This ancient village in an old polder, located on the right of the railway, is traversed by a tiny canal with flower banks. For the little story, this was the first stop of pilgrims from the North towards St-Jacques-de-Compostelle, Spain (the beginnings of religious tourism!). Lissewege is a poetic place located around the steeple of its Gothic church of Scaldien (Scheldt) style. It is still a-Lieve-Vrouwkerk, a Brick lady with past hues dating back to the th century. These bricks are called moefen and are made with the polder clay. In summer, you can climb at the top of the church tower (from 15 June to 15 September, from 14 am to 17 pm. Entry: 1 €). The church is open every day throughout the year from 10 am to 17 pm (18 pm summer). Also dated the 4 th century, the barn of the old Cistercian Abbey Ter Doest is nearby (Ter Doeststraat. Open every day from 10 am to 17 pm, integrated into a farm built with the bricks of the destroyed abbey. The barn, one of the rare secular constructions and utilities of intact Gothic architecture, is an impressive building, the pinnacle of which reaches 21 m high. Its builders were the Cistercian who had undertaken to drain the soil from the Flemish hinterland. The barn was used to store the tithe, tax due in kind by the peasants at the abbey. This explains its broad proportions. The farmhouse and colombier date back to the th century. For more information about Ter Doest or the history of this "white" polder village, visit the visitor centre in the very beautiful presbytery in the shade of Notre-Dame de la Visitation.