Belfry - Bergues

The Belfry of Sint-Winoksbergen (Bergues) is one of the 56 belfries in Belgium and France that have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

The belfry is a modest building, fifty-four metres high , topped with a Flemish Lion .

Although the belfry seems at first glance to be a beautiful Gothic building, upon closer inspection it appears to be a recent impression, and that is not so strange because it is now (2023) a little over sixty years old. This building was destroyed like so many others in this area and only rebuilt in a simpler version in 1961 .

The original tower was a late 14th-century construction , finished with numerous pointed gable niches (now united in long upward niches) and crowned with a lantern and four helmeted corner turrets. The bell storey had already been hit by an incendiary bomb in May 1940, but the carillon itself, with bells from 1628 and the 18th century, had just been removed for restoration and was thus saved. Because the high tower posed a threat to the besieged fortress of Dunkirk, it was dynamited in September 1944. Although the reconstruction was carried out with great respect for the old appearance, the characteristic liveliness of the old belfry has not been reproduced.

In the information office in the former Halle at the foot of the belfry, photographs can be seen of what Bergen was once like.

Every Monday, the carillon of fifty bells spreads its sounds over the square and the city at the foot of the tower.

Willem Vandenameele