Church of Our Lady

Before the First World War, parts of the church went back to the Augustinian abbey of Zonnebeke in the 11th century. Especially during the heyday of the abbey at the end of the 17th and in the 18th century, the abbey church was rebuilt and considerably expanded. When French revolutionaries confiscated the abbey in 1797 and expelled the monks, the original building plan was not yet completely finished. Under French occupation, the marble floor and choir stalls were removed. The rest of the abbey was sold and demolished in the following decades. In 1914, only the abbot's house, transformed into a castle, and the courtyard with a walled vegetable garden remained of the abbey complex. The abbey church, then the parish church of Zonnebeke, also remained. It was completed in the 1870s to the appearance desired during the abbey period. The church suffered considerable damage at the beginning of the First World War. During the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, it was completely reduced to rubble. The foundations of the former abbey church are still visible in the current castle grounds of Zonnebeke. Like other early abbey buildings, they are visualised with pavements in the abbey garden. In the park, embroidery and hedges also mark the position of the rest of the complex. British troops built the Zonnebeke Church Dugout under the foundations of the destroyed church.

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