Roppeke's Place

Sudents of the universitie of Leuven have calculated the geografic center of Flanders. After 120 houres of research by GPS, they have found the exact center of the 5 Flemish provinces. The place is located in the extreem corner of East-Flanders, at a few meters of the village Sint-Amands

Located in the Southwest of the Provence Antwerp, the village of Sint-Amands is part of the region Klein-Brabant. The attractive landscape around the river Schelde invites to make trips with the bicycle and walking near forests, castles and riverbanks. Also you can do a lot of water sports on the river, near the monumental grave of the poet Emile Verhaeren. This touristic place offers a railroad museum, a ferry, monuments and museums. A visit worthy!

The village Oppuurs and Lippelo becomes one together with Sint-Amands in 1976. At that moment Oppuurs had a surface of 4,73 km² and exactly 1654 inhabitants. The name of this village becomes of the geographic location above the adjacent village Puurs, where Oppuurs was making part of around 1414. Because of the location between Puurs and Sint-Amands, the function of this village is more a drive-trough and habitant of local people and farmers. The local church called Sint-Jan en amandus, was build in 1803 and expand in 1960. The city-hall, build in 1910, has a wonderful entrance, decorated with two stone lions, holding the shields of Oppuurs. The previous boys-school was resaturated as a marvelous communities-center.

The village Opdorp makes part of with the village Buggenhout, located in East-Flanders. On the famous square can you see every spring more than 100.000 flowers and visit the yearly market on the first Monday of July. In 2006 the Belgian radio announced this square as the best of Belgium. In the castle you can find the museum Ter Palen.

The village Baasrode is part of Dendermonde since 1977. Also the small hamlet Briel and Vlassenbroek are part of this place. Near the local church of St-Ursmarus is the ferry across the river Schelde. In the past Baasrode was famous for his shipyard and the local builders. This can be seen in the naval museum with lots of models, pictures and other attributes. There exist even an idea to rebuild the old shipyard towards a naval recreation area. Also you find in this village the former train station, with the organization vzw S.D.P. that owns old steam locomotives and made touristic trip with these machines in the region.

The city of Dendermonde, also known as from the legend Ros Beiaard, is the capital of his region in the Provence East-Flanders. The city is located at the junction of the rivers Dender and Schelde. The renovated center of the town, with the beautiful city hall are certainly worth a visit.

Tielrode is partial village of Temse and located at the mouth of the river Durme in the Schelde. In this village you find the ferry Tielrode-Hamme, across the river Durme.

The Mirabridge over the Durme, in the village Hamme, had been build in the period 1896. The bridge get her name and fame from the movie Mira, a story based on the novel De teleurgang van de Waterhoek from Stijn Streuvels, with the actors Willeke van Ammelrooy & Jan Decleir. The original bridge dicribed by Streuvels wasn't located in Hamme, but was the Vierendeel-bridge which conected Ruien and Avelgem. De recent bridge is a modern copy of the original and become a protected statue in 1991. It was restaurated In 2002 and reopend on Januari 21, 2003.

Temse is a village that included since 1976 the villages Tielrode, Steendorp and Elversele, located in the Provence East-Flanders at the left bank of the river Schelde between Sint-Niklaas and Bornem. Here you find the Temsebridge, the longest bridge of Belgium (365m). She connects the Provence Antwerp with East-Flanders trough highway N16. In Temse was also the famous shipyard Boelwerf located, but these days only an old crane and a dry dock reminds you at the former existense. At the Wilford quay it's nice to walk around and look at the monuments like the "kaailopers”.

Rupelmonde is part of the village Kruibeke, and located right across the mouth of the river Rupel into the Schelde. At this place Gerardus Mercator was born in 1512, famous of his charts. In the Roman Empire the village Rupelmonde was a river post and became later a important middelage town. They call Rupelmonde also often the sundial village because of the many sundials in the area. There is also a marvelous reataurated tide mill. This place is also the departure of touristical boat trips.

This old historical castle was constructed in the middle of the park in typical English style. The last adaptions where done between 1850 and 1906 and gives the Wissekerke Castle his present view. Near the castle stands a round Columbidae tower, made of briks, with the place for 700 crates. In the park you find the oldest metal suspension bridge of Europe.

Hemiksem is located at the river Schelde on the South of Antwerp, makes part of the Rupel area and lies in the district of Boom. Here you can find a few historiscal buildings. The most important is the Abby of Sint-Bernard, founded in 1243 by the Cisterciënzers. The village had two stations at the railroad 52 including the Hemiksem-Workingplaces. Only the station in the South was reopen in 1988. In Hemiksem is also a ferry across the river for bycicles and pedestrian. This ferry exist since the 13th century.

The hamlet Wintam is a part of the village Bornem and well now from the Sea Lock at the begining of the channel towards Brussels. Trough this lock, officially opend by our King Albert II, ships can sail from the river Schelde towards the capital of Belgium. Between this channel and the river Rupel lies a nature area with lots of rear species of birds. Nabij de sluis bevindt zich ook het veer Wintam-Schelle en Wintam-Rupelmonde.

The neighborhood Noeveren, part of the city Boom, is located in the Rupel area, where for centuries long the explorations of clay and the fabrication of bricks has been made. Along the border of the Rupel, between these stone factories, where also shipyards and cereal mills located. They also made a lot of other products in this area, like cement, glass, shoes and cutting diamants. Between these factory's lives the workers in small neighbors, narrow streets, and little houses. It became a typical social live environment.

The city of Boom has been the center of the brick-factory's for a very long period. In the EMABB-museum you can see a factory from the past in action. The old factory is completely resaturated and produce bricks in the historical way. In Boom is also the domain De Schorre located. Every year there are a lot of events on this domain and many sport clubs have here there clubhouses. Recently the quay is completely renewed, and make it more pleasant to walk across the border of the river Rupel.

This fortress is build in 1908 and is the best conserved and most complete memorial in the region of Antwerp. Since 1995 the Fortress of Liezele is resaturated step by step into his original functions from 1914 and 1940. The museum with authentic material, the command posts, the quarters, hospital, artilleries and armed observation post are a few of the curiosities.

The Castle of d'Ursel, located at Hingene, was centuries long the summer residence from the noble family d’Ursel. Since 1994 the building is the property of the Provence Antwerp and has a cultural destiny.

This 200 year old building is the previous summer hunting pavilion of the family d'Ursel en is named De Notelaer. In 1984 has the touristic department of Flanders installed here a center of the river Schelde.

Castle Marnix de Saint-Aldegonde was renovated by the architect Henri Beyaert at the end of the 19th century. He kept the superb proportions of the renaissance castle built by the Spanish nobleman don Pedro Coloma. The guided tour focuses on the 16th century and the wonderful paintings of Margaret of Austria, the emperor Charles V and Philip II carry the visitor away to this troubled but exciting era of the history of the Low Countries. The castle possesses a collection of 18th century furniture, splendid engravings by Pieter Breughel the Elder, a lace cabinet and a room with antique dolls. The lay-out of the collection is testimony of the passion of the owners to host visitors in this exceptional space. To complete the visit there's a permanent exhibition on Philip de Marnix, secretary to William of Orange. It pays tribute to the author of the Dutch national hymn, the “Beehive” and who was also mayor of Antwerp and courageous defender of the city against Alexander Farnese and his men. In the annexes a charming carriage museum shows a collection of perfectly preserved antique carriages.

Wieze is a village from Lebbeke, in the Provence East-Flanders, at the edge of the valley of the river Dender, between the cities Aalst and Dendermonde. It has a specific square, dominated by the gotic Church Sint-Salvator and the previous cafe "'t Oud Gemeentehuis". The center of the village protected since 1981 as monumental view. You can find here a strange old oak-tree. Besides that Wieze has a lot of curiosities, like the castle with hes ice shelters and a wonderful chapel from the 17th century. In this area Wieze is well known from the Oktoberhallen, where in the past yearly during the month October great festivities toke place. Now these halls are uses for lot of other events. The biggest yearly activity is "Wies Karnaval", that take place two weeks after the Carnaval of Aalst, with a street parade of local groups.