The tombstone of presumably 'Metten Eye' - Stene

During works for a new heating system in 2018, a gravestone of a knight and a tombstone of an unknown woman with two children were uncovered.

The tombstone of presumably 'Metten Eye' is a unique piece ; historically and art-historically an important tombstone of which no equal has been preserved in Flanders. The tombstone can largely be compared to the tombstone of Boudewijn van Heile that dated from 1320 and was excavated in Hannekenswerve (Zeeland) in 1963 and has now disappeared.

The knight stands upright, his hands assume a prayer position and his feet rest on a dog . He wears a coat of mail with a long 'sorcoot' over it with a belt around his loins. On his chest he wears a coat of arms with a chevron accompanied by three castles or towers. His sword protrudes from under his shield. He stands under an arch shaped like a canopy, decorated with towers and pinnacles. The uprights on which the canopy rests are broken through with framework with Gothic arches. His head and hands used to be covered with white marble. The epitaph - the narrow text band on the edge of the gravestone - is written in uncials and is only partly legible.

Next to the knight's gravestone , a grave slab of an unknown woman , probably the knight's wife, was found. This shows a badly damaged engraving and is therefore not freely accessible.

willem vandenameele