Schoonselhof Domain

Antwerp also has its Père-Lachaise: the Schoonselhof. The local population has long regarded the domain as a pleasant walking park, but the place owes its fame to the tombstones of writers such as Hendrik Conscience, Willem Elsschot, Paul van Ostaijen, Marnix Gijsen, Herman De Coninck and Bernard Dewulf, sculptor Joris Minne, composers Armand Preud’homme and Peter Benoit – who rest under a remarkable tomb by sculptor Arthur Pierre – as well as entertainment stars Will Ferdy, La Esterella and Robert Mosuse, film director Robbe De Hert and comic book artist Jef Nys. However, the first person to be buried here, on August 29, 1914, was a German soldier. Hundreds of fallen from the First and Second World Wars would follow.

Mediahuis België