Saint-Roch church in l'Ecluse, divided in two by the language border

From an ecclesiastical point of view, the village of L'Ecluse depended on Meldert, while the chapel, dedicated to Our Lady (and now to Saint Roch), the presbytery and a few houses belonged to Hoegaarden. The chapel was just a simple building where Mass was celebrated and catechism was taught on Sundays and feast days. Traditionally, the dead of the village were buried in or around the chapel. The right of gift belonged to the local lord "van Quabeke".

Under the French rule, L'Ecluse was annexed to the parish of Meldert. In the time of William I, in 1825, the congregation asked for the chapel to be recognized as a recognized place of worship and would pay a salary of 250 guilders to the priest who served the church. However, the chapel was not recognized until years later by a decree of July 11, 1842. In 1873 the parish was separated from the deanery of Tienen and merged with that of Beauvechain. In 1870 the churchwardens owned 1ha 52a of land and in 1872 the ordinary funds reached 1,148 Bef..

As the old chapel fell into disrepair, permission was obtained for its reconstruction on 22 November 1860. In its place was an elegant building, in neo-Romanesque style, designed by the Leuven architect Van Arenbergh senior. Above the entrance we read this chronogram: Deo optIMo- sVb tVteLa sanCtI RoChI - ereCta, which gives us the year 1863. The altar, in carvings, comes from the workshops of M.A. Goyers from Leuven.

The plaque on the façade of the church in L'Ecluse commemorates the military victims of the First World War. Under the inscription: "L'ECLUSE / A SES HEROS" we read the names of two inhabitants who died in the Flemish fields: HUTS Victor, in Westvleteren on 23 December 1917 and ADAMS Georges Corneille, in Beveren on 18 September 1918.

The Walloon side of L'Ecluse (Sluizen) merged with Bevekom in 1977, the Flemish side with Hoegaarden. The language border runs right through the main street. If you drive to the church from the Chaussée de Wavre, you will see the sign Rue de Gaet on the right, Gaatstraat on the left. The border runs right through the church. The parish priest does the always French-speaking mass at the altar in Flanders, his parishioners are in Wallonia.

Jan Rymenams