Onze-Lieve-Vrouwehoekje Memorial Site

THE WWI INFONDATION AREA at a GLANCE

1st Battle of the Yser:
On the night of October 22 to 23, 1914, Belgian officers set fire to the church so that the Germans could not use it as an observation post. The next day, however, the Germans pushed further and occupied several farms. However, the farm is completely destroyed. However, three days later the Germans managed to cross the Yser. The Belgian army cannot push them back, only bring them to a standstill.

During the night of October 30 to 31, the Yser plain was flooded by the Belgians, putting an end to the German advance.

On this site, a Belgian outpost bunker was built on the old ruins of a damaged farm in March 1915. This outpost bunker was very strategically located. It was more than 1km into the inundation area. This place was actually an island in the middle of the inundation area.
The island could only be reached via slippery footbridges.

The island was further expanded in 1917 with 2 accompanying concrete shelters (command post and 1st aid post), barbed wire, trenches and connecting trenches.

Today you can visit the fortified outpost bunker. On the roof you have an orientation table and a beautiful view of the polders. With some imagination you can go back 100 years in time. There is also an intact “Demarcation pole” next to the bunker with the inscription “Here the captor was stopped”. A memorial chapel has also been erected on this site.
Memorial columns and memorial stones have also been erected next to the chapel in honor of Belgian regiments that served here.

Place where a lot of historical monuments stand together at a church

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwehoekje is a protected war site located in Stuivekenskerke/Diksmuide.
The site consists of: a memorial chapel, the remains of an old church tower (the tower ruins), a demarcation pole, a command bunker and various memorial stones. The outpost that was set up on November 3, 1914 grew into a large guard post. This was a group of posts in the area between the IJzerdijk and the railway embankment.
The large guard post, Oud-Stuivekenskerke, had an important place in the Belgian defense. It was located more than a kilometer in front of the front line and in an almost flat landscape. Oud-Stuv guarded the German posts on the western bank of the Iron River and provided a connection with the large guard post Reigersvliet. He also protected Kaaskerke's left flank.
The whole and the surrounding area have been arranged as a landscape since 1959, including the rubble of the shelled church tower. In 2005, the site was included in the inventory of immovable heritage.