Calvary Cross

In the year 1909, H.E.H. Lootens, pastor of Dranouter, commissioned Mr. Victor Vanmaercke, contractor from Tiegem, to erect a Calvary cross in commemoration of the murder of three clergymen in 1568 by the forest beggars. Every year, on the 3rd Sunday of September, the 'Black Mill Pilgrimage' takes place, from the village church of Dranouter to this Calvary cross.
20 September 2009 - family Vanmaercke

Forest Beggars or Forest Friends (in French bosquillons, also feuillants or blitres) were active Beggars in the interior who had united in bands of robbers at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War and from the rebellious provinces of Holland and Zeeland robbed and plundered the north and west of Flanders, Brabant and Tournai. They frightened the population and did not shrink from murder and rape, and plundered the treasures and the few possessions of the poor. (Wikipedia)

Rodenbachfonds