Boudeloo walk - Stekene (Klein-Sinaai)

An exceptionally beautiful walk along the Moervaart and along forests, hay meadows, lanes, ditches, pools, picturesque field roads of the Waasland past the nature reserve of Fondatie Boudeloo.

Klein-Sinaai is a cozy village along an old trade route that connected Bruges and Ghent with Antwerp and Hulst.
Nearby is the expressway N49, which connects Antwerp with Knokke. On this site you will find extensive information about the history, tourism and events.

Much more than we might suspect, Klein-Sinaai is at the basis of the development of the current Waasland. Around 1197 the monk community of Boudelo settled there. They divided their time between prayer and manual labor and emerged as masters in draining swamps, clearing forests, irrigating, fertile and cultivating arable land.

Thanks to the generosity of the counts of Flanders, the clergy and the Wase nobility, Boudelo Abbey managed to build up an impressive landholding, especially in the region of Hulst and Axel and in the Waasland. In addition to the monastery, Boudelo owned refuges in Sint-Niklaas, Stekene, Hulst, Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent, mills and homesteads (for example the Lysdonckhoeve in Sinaai). The abbey had all kinds of privileges and rights, which allowed it to increase its prosperity: exemptions from tolls, taxes and rents, tithing rights and fishing rights in the Durme.

REYNAERT. Klein-Sinaai is also inextricably linked to the Reynaert story. The writer, Willem, who madoc maecte probably lived in the Abbey of Boudelo, which stood in Klein-Sinaai from the 12th to the 16th century. In 1548, however, it was destroyed by Ghent Calvinists. The monks have since stayed in their refugie house in Ghent. The monks of the Baudelo Abbey systematically took the Ghent Water District near Sint-Jacobs. Source: www.kleinsinaai.be

From: Kasteelstraat 24, 9190 Stekene, Flanders, Belgium
To: Kasteelstraat 24, 9190 Stekene, Flanders, Belgium

Routing: Walk - most beautiful, Manual