Statue of Willem van Saeftinghe - Lissewege

The statue of the legendary lay brother knight Willem van Saeftinghe , made by sculptor Jef Claerhout , was unveiled in 1988 on the market square in Lissewege.

It depicts a gigantic figure wielding an imposing broadsword in one hand and holding a morning star in the other, while at his feet are depicted miniature figures of Flemish warriors and French knights , separated by the symbolic 'Groeninghe beek'.

The statue symbolises his role in the Battle of Kortrijk (the Battle of the Golden Spurs of 1302), in which he dragged the French army commander Robert II of Artois from his horse and defeated several knights.

Willem van Saeftinghe lived and worked as a lay brother in the Cistercian Abbey of Ter Doest , near Lissewege. He became known for his heroic actions in 1302 at the Battle of the Golden Spurs, after which he became a Flemish folk hero. In 1308, he led a revolt of the lay brothers against financial abuse in the abbey. He fled to the church tower of Lissewege ; Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck came to rescue him with 80 citizens of Bruges. He was subsequently excommunicated but later pardoned by Pope Clement V on the condition that he join the Knights Hospitaller and depart for the Holy Land, where he may have died during the siege of Rhodes.

Willem Vandenameele