The old cemetery: skeletons, tombstones and a car park

For a long time, at least until after 1948, the St. Lawrence Church was surrounded by a cemetery. Afterwards, the cemetery was moved to the Professor Scharpélaan. In the church itself we can still see a beautiful baroque tombstone by Pierre Dassignies (1664). When, at the end of the 18th century, burials in the church were no longer allowed, the wealthy bourgeoisie and nobility had the tombstones placed against the church wall. The priests were also buried here. You can easily recognize their grave markers by a chalice and host.
In the unsafe years of the 17th century, namely 1626, the inhabitants of Betekommen wanted to make a redoubt of the cemetery and protect themselves behind the cemetery wall, but this was disputed by the church authorities.
In 1760 the cemetery had become so full that the bodies were buried in three layers on top of each other and the ground was 90 cm above the church floor. The ground was then excavated and the skeletons were ceremonially buried elsewhere in consecrated ground. To make room for future deceased, even the 12 walnut trees in the cemetery were cut down.
But during the renovation of the village centre in 2017, it came to light that there were about 300 skeletons under the clinkers. 130 of them were excavated and studied by the archaeological service. And as if the bill of 300,000€ for this study by the municipality was not enough, Begijnendijk had to take care of the safekeeping of the skeletons.

Jan Rymenams