Witches' Well Gottem

Tanneken Sconynckx (Anna De Coninck) was born around 1560 in Gottem. She was accused of witchcraft by her nephew bailiff Meganck during the religious troubles in 1602 - 1603. Tanneken died in Tielt in 1603 during torture that lasted four days and nights.

Tanneken was a beautiful and rich lady. She was married to Thomas van der Meulen and the mother of three sons and a daughter. Her husband regularly scolded her for being a 'sorceress, whore and thief'. Tanneken therefore complained to the bailiff. She won the lawsuit and received a 'purge', the official confirmation that she was not a witch. When Gheraert van der Meersch also publicly called her a witch, she filed another lawsuit, which she also won this time.

Pastor of Gottem

On 24 March 1600, in order to protect herself once and for all against all slander, she went to the parish priest of her native village of Gottem, Jeronimus Rade, who was a passionate witch hunter. She also took her daughter with her, so that she could never be subjected to the same slander. The priest examined mother and daughter for possible devil signs. The daughter was undressed, but Tanneken did not allow the priest to remain alone with her in the sacristy. The priest then declared mother and daughter free of witchcraft. However, the wildest rumours about this event circulated later.

Bailiff of Gottem

Hubrecht Meganck, bailiff of the seigneury of Ter Beke in Gottem, had set his sights on the rich and handsome Tanneken. But he did not respond to his advances and therefore wanted to take revenge. He sought out witnesses and initiated proceedings against her for witchcraft. The accusation was a carbon copy of the stereotypical things that were discussed in such a witch trial. Tanneken was said to possess a magic powder, she had made a horse sick, and the bailiff said she had made a pact with the devil, and she had been seen by witnesses at the witches' sabbath. She was interrogated for the first time on 16 December 1602.

Tielt

On Christmas Eve 1602, Tanneken was imprisoned in the prison of Tielt, on the corner of Hoogstraat and Sint-Jansstraat. Tielt was the capital of the Roede van Tielt, to which Gottem belonged at the time. On 30 December, Tanneken was officially accused of witchcraft by bailiff Meganck at the aldermen's bench. She denied all allegations and stated that the bailiff wanted to take revenge for her sexual rejection. Tanneken was rich and the bailiff apparently wanted to loot her possessions as well. She was examined for devil's signs in the Tielste hall tower and tortured by the Ghent executioner Baudewijn Waelspeck. Tanneken claimed that the executioner had scarred her at night with a corrosive acid, which he pointed out as devil's signs the next day. The torture cracked Tanneken and, despite her initial resistance, she eventually confessed to everything she was accused of. She even admitted to having had sexual relations with the devil "who had a cold-to-the-touch penis from which no semen came."

After the torture, she retracted all confessions, but that brought new torture. The torture lasted from 23 May to 2 June 1603. During the last, intensive torture in the Tieltse Hallentoren, which had lasted four days and nights, Tanneken succumbed. Salomon Marcx, a surgeon from Tielt, stated that Tanneken had not died of her injuries but that the devil had broken her neck. Finally, the bailiff was able to push through a conviction and was then able to get her hands on some of her possessions.

'The Witches' Well' in Gottem

Because she had not asked forgiveness for her sins, Tanneken was buried in unconsecrated ground in her birthplace Gottem. She is said to have been buried close to a pond near the Pontstraat, the current Ardennes Jagersstraat. The pond is still called 'the witch's well'.

Posthumously, she was acquitted of witchcraft and in 1994 she even received a statue by the Tielt artist Jef Claerhout on the Market Square of Tielt, next to the Hallentoren. Since that year, you can now also drink a 'Tielts Tannke' in Tielt.

Glen