This charming chapel in Minderhout was built in the mid-17th century by Pastor Waltman van Dyck, brother of the famous painter Antoon van Dyck.
The chapel of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van den Akker owes its name to its legendary origins.
"Where the chapel now stands, there used to be nothing more than waste ground and thickets with thorns. One day, while playing, a young girl found a 'beautiful doll' under a bush. When she happily showed the find to her mother, she saw quickly discovered that it was not an ordinary play doll and carefully put it away. There was great surprise when the find turned out to have disappeared the next day. The girl went looking again and found the doll again in the same place near the bush where she had left it. had found the previous day. This miraculous story was told to the pastor who decided to take the doll in procession to the parish church. Three times the doll was brought to the church and three times it returned to the wood bush. People did not know any better than to build a chapel on the spot where Mary clearly wished to be venerated."
The legend remains primarily an oral tradition, but official documents from 1650 also speak of a 'miraculous bell blanket' in an 'old capelleke'.
Visit
The chapel door is usually open during the day. So be sure to drop by if you are in the area.