Legends Helleketelbos

The Flying and Doominous Horseman

In the Napoleonic era, a short skirmish took place in the Helleketelbos in which an unknown French rider with his horse lost his life. Since he was not a Christian, he was buried on the spot with his horse in the drive and was popularly called "Peerdedreef". Since then, no grass, herb or any other crop has ever grown here, only a few sparse blades proliferated. But the most peculiar thing was that every time a sad disaster or special event appeared in the region, this rider appeared on horseback with shiny sabre, fluttering red cloak; He could be seen high in the sky, above the woods and he was surrounded by black crosses and shortly after his appearance he had disappeared. For example, it would have been seen in the spring of 1915, moreover enveloped in a kind of mist: the predictor of the first gas attack in Steenstraete on April 22. Others believe they saw the doom rider in the spring of 1918: the harbinger of the battle around the Kemmelberg.

The sunken fairytale castle

In the formerly even more extensive Helleketelbos lived in a castle an old, stingy knight with his 2 princesses, his granddaughters TREESJE (a sweet girl with blonde locks) and BELLETJE (a hateful and greedy boy). Treesje gives a beggar woman who rings the doorbell some apples to satisfy the hunger, but the miserly grandfather roughly sends the beggar star away so that she loses her apples and locks the heavy gate. The begging woman suddenly turns around and turns into a witch : she lets out some magical formulas and thus curses the castle that slowly sinks into the soggy forest floor and is guarded by Kalle with the Hook. An old but loyal castle servant hid the sweet little princess TREES in a glass bell jar, but in the hurry some blonde locks kept sticking out. Since then, at midnight and in the moonshine in the mirror-smooth pool, one could see the blonde curls of the princess.

Vl. Toeristisch bezienswaardigheden