Averbode

Averbode is a former municipality in Belgium in the southern Kempen in the province of Flemish Brabant. It was an independent municipality from 1928 until 1 January 1977 when it merged with Scherpenheuvel-Zichem. The population was 3289 as of 2006. It lies at a wooded elevation that makes the water divide of the Demer to the south and the Kalsterloop to the north and which formed the historical border between the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Loon. It was a rural village with a few farmhouses and scattered farms. It reached its peak in the first half of the twentieth century when devotion to the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus created a pilgrimage tourism.

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