Neo-Gothic Saint Martin's Church

The parish church of Saint Martin is a non-oriented cruciform church with a surrounding, partly walled cemetery, located west of the cobbled church square, and north of ruins of the Herzele castle.

The earliest records of St. Martin's Church date from the 10th century. Until the beginning of the 20th century, St. Martin's Church retained its medieval volume. A neo-Gothic new building was built in the west between 1912 and 1914. Today it is the main church of the parish Herzele-Houtem.
The Sint-Martinuskerk is a cruciform church with a partly walled cemetery. Entering the church you can admire five beautiful stained glass windows that were painted between 1934 and 1955. The tower hull is unusual. Each side is broken in a different way with pointed arch-shaped reverberation holes.
Saint Martin, also known as Maarten van Tours, was the bishop of Tours. Legend has it that at the age of 15 he gave half of his cloak to a beggar, who turned out to be an apparition of Jesus. Maarten could only give half of his cloak because the other half belonged to Rome. Thus Saint Martin became the symbol of charity.
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Saint Martin, to whom this house of God is consecrated, is - next to Saint Nicholas - one of the most popular saints of all. The memorial day of the former officer in the Roman army is November 11th. On the night after the famous “coat sharing”, when he surrendered half his army cloak to a freezing beggar, Jesus Christ appears to him in a dream. Martin then converted to Christianity and was later elected Bishop of Tours (France) - initially against his will.