Ice cellar road Zegelsem

The ice cellar road in Zegelsem/Brakel is a bumpy cobblestone strip and earth road of 414m long. It owes its name to the ice cellar that the owner in the nineteenth-century of Hof-te-Wolfskerke had digged. It leads downhill to the Wolfskerkebeek or Vaanbuikbeek, one of the springs of the Zwalm. It is also the boundary between Zegelsem and Opbrakel. Beyond the water, towards the courtyard of Wolfskerke, underneath a single oak tree, there is an entrance to the ice cellar which can still be seen today. In this ice cellar, an overarching well made with bricks, ice could be stored until August.

Already around 1177 the place name Wolueskerka, Woluekerke, was mentioned. Under the Ancien Regime, the Hof-te-Wolfskerke has always belonged to the mighty Benedictine Abbey of Ename, which also owned the famous Hof-te-Gruine in the north of Vloesberg. In 1571, the surface was approximately 36 ha. In 1651, the "courtyard" was rented by the brothers Filip and Joos de Ruyver, who each lived on a beautiful separate farm, one situated on the current yard, the other a little further south of the bend of the current Wolfskerkestraat. In the French period, the second court town disappeared and the whole of Wolfskerke, with an area of 41 hectares, came into the hands of the Mulle family in Ghent. Senator Mulle made great plans in Wolfskerke in 1893: before that time, he had his own staff set up state-of-the-art buildings, a chicken farm and a dairy where the chimney can still be seen today. In addition, a luxurious country house was built, the "Chateau Mulle" - popularly called "Mullens Castle" - with real castle allures (this building has now been reoccupied). In 1919, Mayor Lothaire Van den Bossche was able to buy everything. A curious memory of this great past is preserved by a stone, masonry in a wall of the house that depicts the coats of arms of the abbey of Ename and of Abbot Colins.

Willem Vandenameele