A chapel and a vanished mill in Haakstraat

At the crossroads of Processieweg, Haakstraat, and Spagniestraat stands the white-painted Meulderschapel in honor of Our Lady, built between 1939 and 1947. The name is related to the nearby heath where a windmill stood, the Haakmolen. The mill was a wooden post mill with an open foot and was used as a grain windmill. It was built in 1846 by miller and millwright Conelius Franciscus Janssens from Heist-op-den-Berg on land owned by Baron De Snoy. In 1866, the mill came into the hands of the Huygenes-Engelen family for the next six decades. The mill was demolished in 1933.

In this corner began the area of Spagniën and the Heath. The area connected to the vast, almost deserted heathlands of the Kempen, with ponds. It wasn't until around 1860 that Spagniën and Heath would become inhabited. The homes fell under the lowest cadastral incomes as huts with only 1 opening! There lived day laborers with a goat or a cow. Women and children sometimes left the village for long periods to beg. The men were poachers, fishermen, broom binders, or basket weavers. Ant eggs were also collected for aviary birds.

Toerisme Aarschot