Alveringem Church Graveyard

Alveringem is one of the first livable villages during the First World War. Consequently, it is also a base of operations for returning or departing military personnel, for the wounded and thousands of frontline soldiers to get some rest. In particular, the settlement at Fortem is a logistical hub for the supply of munitions and food to the Belgian sector.
The graveyard round the church at Alveringem becomes a burial ground and all burial services are given a place in the church. But the graveyard quickly becomes too small for the many dead. Burials pile up quickly and they cannot keep pace with the flow in March 1915. The funerals continue to take place in Alveringem, but the then the procession goes to Oeren.
In the graveyard since 1971 lies also Cyriel Verschaeve who inspired the Flemish nationalistic ‘Frontbeweging’ from Alveringem and later, in the Second World War, collaborated with the German occupying force in the hope of Flemish emancipation. He was exhumed by a militia of the Vlaamse Militanten Orde in Austria and brought back here.

Vl. Toeristisch bezienswaardigheden