Mol Millegem-Stokt

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Update; 06-09-2022

Beautiful varied, rural walk in Mol Millegem. Departures are made on a street called Stokt.

Millegem is one of the 12 hamlets of the Belgian municipality of Mol. The village had 3471 inhabitants on 31 December 2016[1] and is also referred to as a church village. The hamlet is not to be confused with the smaller hamlet of the same name "Millegem", in Ranst.

Toponymy

The name Millegem is derived from 'mille' which means light earth, fine dust, sand.

History

Millegem was first mentioned in the 8th century, when Saint Odrada came to Millegem on pilgrimage to the chapel of Our Lady.

During the 12th century there was a fierce battle between the Berthouts, Heren van Geel and the Molse guardian to expand their territory. The Mollenaars apparently lost here, with the result that Millegem became a Geel enclave within Mol. Millegem became a parish hamlet of the Freedom and the Lordship of Geel in the Middle Ages and then obtained a semi-independent position. Despite the fact that it was an independent parish, there were few houses: 16 houses in 1435 and 4 houses in 1668. Nevertheless, it owned a church.

At this time, the possession of Millegem extended to near the center of Mol. The name "Millegemhof" of the Art Nouveau villa at Edmond van Hoofstraat 11 in Mol-Centrum from 1909 still bears witness to this.

Since 1818 Millegem has been part of the municipality of Mol. At the end of 1820 there were 45 people living there. In 1845 a new parish was founded which was named Millegem but also included the immediately adjacent territory, including the hamlet of Stokt.

The rural church from 1858 was demolished in 1961 and replaced by the current St. Odra Church, designed by the Brasschaat architect Jozef Gabriels. This church still has a 17th-century wooden statue of Saint Odrada.

Today

One of the largest districts of Millegem is the Europawijk, where originally many villas were built for the officials of the nearby branches of Euratom, Eurochemic and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK). Since 1960, the European School has also been located in Millegem.

Source: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millegem_(Mol)