We are moving to the heart of Hageland in Flanders-Brabant. In the center of the diamond formed by the cities of Leuven, Diest, Aarschot, and Tienen lies Tielt, a village with two parishes and an ideal starting point for a walk along and over some Hageland hills. You stroll through the valley from one parish to the other, enjoying varied landscapes with stunning views. You also walk a stretch on the bed of the former black tram and midway up, you climb the Vlooybergtower, a unique suspended staircase with a beautiful view over the region.

Tielt was an independent municipality with two parishes until the merger in 1977. The churches of these two parishes, both located on a hill, are less than 1.5 km apart from each other from a bird's eye view. Like many other Hageland villages, Tielt was an agricultural village until about 50 years ago with seasonal workers moving to Wallonia or Northern France. Over time, the local production and seasonal work disappeared, and people found employment in the surrounding towns. Companies such as Philips, Stella-Artois, the grain mills along the canal, the Raiffeisenbank, the Boerenbond, and others in Leuven were important employers. Since several major access roads lead past the village to the center of the country, the village has increasingly become a popular residential area over the past 20 years. The prices of houses and building plots have risen significantly. To meet the demand for affordable housing, a new phenomenon has emerged along the road between both parishes in the past 10 years: the construction of apartment blocks, mostly two stories above ground level.