The protected village center of Gaasbeek is shaded by a double row of plane trees and chestnut trees that surround the bluestone pillory. This pillory consists of a smooth shaft with a high pedestal and crown without inscription.
On the east side of the square is the church and rectory site, both of which were conceived as a traditional 'private courtyard'.
The parish church was originally a chapel dependent on the mother parish of Sint-Kwintens-Lennik, its foundation as an independent parish dates back to 1381. Disagreement between the various tithe collectors, in particular the lord of Gaasbeek, the pastor of Sint-Kwintens-Lennik and the chapter van Nijvel was the reason for this.
The rectory was erected northeast of the church choir and has been used as a Heemkundig Museum for some time. It was built in 1758 with the proceeds of the tithes of the chapter of Nivelles, as confirmed by the now disappeared annual journal "DeCIMa CapItVLI". She replaced an older rectory that was too far away. Like the church, it is set against a hill, surrounded at the front and rear by a garden almost completely enclosed by brick walls. The rectory has the shape of a traditional double house with two storeys of five bays under a saddle roof and shows a remarkably sober approach.
On the corner with Onderstraat is the so-called café, farm and brewery "De Molensteen". Surrounding an elongated paved courtyard, along the square side, is a residential house conceived as a double house with one storey, five bays and a saddle roof (tiles) that is dated 1777 by means of annual anchors in the rear facade. The whitewashed brick facade with a cross-arched door and two similar barred windows in painted natural stone frames contains two rectangular windows with leak thresholds from the 19th century on the left. In Onderstraat, there is first an 18th-century entrance gate with wooden lintel under a tile hip roof and then a brick stable wing (18th century) under a saddle roof (tiles) with roof and braiding. On the other side, a more recent commercial building, and on the short side, a brick longitudinal barn under a saddle roof (tiles) built in 1859 in projecting brick heads (side wall).
Translated by Google •
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