Kruiskoutermolen

The millers only needed a little hill to catch wind and water. The Kruiskoutermolen is ingenious, beautiful, and superhuman at the same time. It stood in Nieuwerkerken until the early 1920s and can be found on the Ferraris map. Farmer and wagon maker Jozef Van der Haegen had the wooden post mill, a three-story building with three pairs of grinding stones, brought over to Mere. According to one source, 44 trips with the ox cart were needed to bring each part here, according to another source 22, and yet another mentions 40 trips. An iron beam still contains the text "Doet elck u werck, ick ’t myne."

Farmer Jozef reassembled the mill on this spot. It ground grain, suffered storm damage, fell into disrepair, but was restored and is now again capable of milling. This is reminiscent of the Ise Jingu, the Shinto temples in Japan, which are ceremonially taken apart every twenty years to be rebuilt in the same spot. Thus, the shrine remains always new and always ancient. Carpentry as meditation. You won't come closer to the Japanese mountains in Flanders than at this corner of Schoolstraat and Dieptestraat.

Mediahuis België