Église Sainte-Agathe and Bois du Wilder

When going through the monuments lists and marking them on the map I decided to test Chris a little bit. We went through couple of the files and he was trying to guess what is the picture showing, and where it can be found. He was doing really well, I must admit!

On one of the monuments he said "oh, that's a lovely place and it's next to my parents, I can't believe I never showed you that one". That's how first target of our expeditions was set. Next time we dropped the baby at her grandparents, we had a bit of time, the weather was nice - we hit the road.

You can find two Saint-Agatha's churches in Brussels, and if you search in Google Maps you will find the wrong one. Google will show you the new church, one that I believe is still in use, at Rue de l'Église (being very originally, the Church Street).

The one listed as a monument, the old one, can be found at Rue de l'Allée Verte - the Street of the Green Path. The street itself is interesting and we will come back to visit it (and blog about it) as it is, as a whole, protected and listed as a monument. This time though, we focused on the church. And the wood.

First things first. Below you can see the exact location of the church on Google Maps with a Street View. Pretty pretty, no?

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According to Wikipedia (Berchem-Sainte-Agathe) the church was build somewhere between 1287 and 1311, and is one of the two only buildings in the whole commune built before 1800. From Wikipedia I also learnt that the Church went through a restoration twice, in 1744 and in 1974. That's where it ends. I could not find any other information about its origin and history.

What I found though, is old pictures of the place. For French speaking people interested in the history (yes, Nolan, I am thinking of you now), this is interesting link to follow: Bruxelles Anecdotique - Berchem-Ste-Agathe.

Nowadays the church is closed. We didn't see any information about possible visits or events happening there, so we only took some photographs from the outside. I must say I like the new look of it. It looks cleaner and, paradoxically, older than before.

On the picture below, being view on the Rue de l'Allée Verte, you can see part of the building that is shown as a whole in the last picture from the past. This is the ancient Brasserie (brewery) which we will definitely go back to (and it is also listed as a protected monument). At the time of our visit though, it was still undergoing massive renovation so it wasn't looking that impressive.

If you're standing in the front of the church (as in the second to last picture) and you will turn around, you will see one of the entrances to the Bois du Wilder.

You can find a general description of the place (in English) at this website: Sustainable City - Wilder Wood.

The detailed description, unfortunately only in French: IF_EV_Parcs_Bois_du_Wilder_FR.

According to the document linked above, the first mentions of the site come from the Middle Ages. It was probably part of the "I'Hof ter Wilst", ancient farm dating from XIII century. Sources say about the castle which was there around XVI century. 

After the French Revolution (1789 to 1799) the castle was destroyed and the whole site fell into the ownership of the Koninckx' - hence the other name for the wood - Koninckxbos. The name Koninckx rings a bell in my head. I think I saw it somewhere browsing through the Brussels monuments, but I cannot find it back right now. I will do more research some other time...

At that time the place was gradually turning into park of English style, only to be cut down (again) during the World War II for a fireplace wood. It was then divided into parcels for the purpose of urbanisation, but one of the parts remained abandoned and eventually turned into the wood that we can visit today.

As for me, it is really great place to have a walk at. Looks like a miniature of a forest (which I guess is a definition of a wood, really). It seems really wild in some places, but is cut with several paths containing lots of benches to rest and relax. And trash cans! Trivial maybe, but I pay attention to that - nothing more annoying than having to carry your trash for an hour with you (and seeing that some people didn't care to carry them at all).

On the other side you will find yourself next to a cemetery, but we didn't feel like visiting that one yet (however strangely that might sound).

On the Wiki pages, along the lines where the author complains about the commune being changed due to the pressure of developers, I found information that this site belongs to the commune itself, therefore is not at risk of being changed into a apartment block or a supermarket. Good news, for sure.