Lissewege Village Center

Lissewege was already a pilgrimage site in the Middle Ages. Fishermen had found in a nearby bay a miraculous statue of Mary, in whose honor a church was built. Pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela stopped in Lissewege and contributed to their relative wealth through their donations. In 1106 French Benedictines were to found an abbey in Lissewege. Due to a failure, the land with the Thosan chapel in the hands of the Cistercians, who then built the abbey complex Ter Doest. Farms were built in the near and far surroundings of the abbey, often on land that the monks, who were outstanding dike-builders, had wrested from the sea. Of the abbey buildings, only the pigeon tower, the monumental gatehouse and the huge 14th-century abbey gate survived the storms of the times.

The Brick Church of the Visitation of Mary is a typical example of the "coastal Gothic". The interior of the church with the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary (1625), the striking organ brochure, the beautifully designed rood screen and the pulpit (1652) is remarkable. Those who make the effort to climb the 264 steps of the blunt tower will be rewarded with a wonderful view of the polders as far as Ostend and Bruges. On clear days you can even see the Dutch peninsula Wacheren (Zealand).
There are a variety of works of art and sculptures in the church.

Beautiful village with white houses on small canals