Belle Croix

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Belle Croix with pedestal
Belle Croix (Belgium)
Belle Croix
Belle Croix
The Belle Croix in Belgium

The Belle Croix ( French for: beautiful cross ) is a more than five meter high crucifix in the High Fens in the municipality of Jalhay in the Belgian province of Liège .

description

In 1961 it was built on the national road N 68 Eupen - Malmedy at the junction to Verviers (N 672) on the initiative of the Belgian association " Les Amis de la Fagne " (French for: Friends of the Venns ) and officially blessed on October 1, 1961 and inaugurated. The location is on the high plateau of the High Fens , about two kilometers away from Baraque Michel . The creator of the Belle Croix is ​​the Raeren sculptor Leonhard Mennicken (1874–1969). He carved the figure of Christ in almost five years of work from a two-meter-long piece of oak heartwood. Two limestone panels flanking the cross and the inscription at the bottom of the main beam document the prehistory of Belle Croix, which began in 1877 and was closely related to the lump maker (wooden shoe carver) Arnold François and his lump maker house / house / shoemaker's house ( French: Maison du Sabotier ). From 2008 to 2011 the Belle Croix was repaired with the help of volunteers by the passionate restorer Josy Moureau (occupational therapist ). For almost half a century, the rough weather and vandalism had left clear marks on the crucifix. In 2011, the Belle Croix returned to its original location without a ceremony.

prehistory

In 1856 the road from Eupen to Malmedy was completed and in 1877 the road coming up from Jalhay , which was previously a cart path, was expanded.

The Walloon lump maker Adolphe François built a hut at the fork in the road for the first time in 1875 , where he and his family settled. In 1877 the lump maker decided to build a bigger house or a hostel in the same place in order to benefit from the increasing traffic. One morning the workers found a prayer saying written in chalk at their construction works (“Mon Dieu si je vous ai offensé pardonnez moi”, French for: Lord, if I have offended you, forgive me ) and a discarded, carved crucifix . The circumstances of the event and the reason for the troubled conscience and the remorse of the unknown person have remained hidden. Adolphe François put the discarded cross on the facade of his newly built house, and the hostel was named "Auberge de la Belle Croix" (French for: Herberge zum Schönen Kreuz ).

The transformer station for the carriages of the Prussian post office for changing horses on the Eupen - Malmedy route was also set up here until the post office also reached Malmedy by rail from 1886 with the completion of the Vennbahn to Weismes . When the son of the lump maker was charged with the murder of forester Michel Jules Toussaint on October 22, 1900 on the Hill , many visitors stayed away from the hostel. The act could not be proven to the son. In 1901 François sold his hostel to the state and moved away. The lump maker house continued to be used as a forester's house and hunting lodge. After a fire in 1912, the forest administration rebuilt the house. After the outbreak of the First World War it was hardly used and fell into disrepair. A new hunting pavilion was built in the property of the Belgian King Albert I in 1923. In the vernacular, the name Klumpenmacherhäuschen remained in use.

Since the fork in the road was blown up by Belgian soldiers on April 15, 1940 after the beginning of World War II , the intersection has been vacant. First, a modest cross made of thin spruce trunks marked the site of the former lump maker house. In 1950, a simple spruce high cross was set up at the fork in the road, slightly offset from the confluence of the N 672, before today's Belle Croix found its home on the site of the old lump maker house in 1961.

  • Belle Croix Christ figure

  • left panel (lump maker's hut from 1875)

  • right picture panel (Klumpenmacherhaus 1877)

  • Inscription “Mon Dieu si je vous ai offensé pardonnez moi”; Lord, if I have offended You, forgive me

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Christoph Wendt: It's wonderful to walk across the moor. Out and about in the High Fens, Europe's most beautiful high moor. Meyer & Meyer Verlag, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89899-384-5 , p. 104.
  2. ↑ a b c Establishment of »Belle-Croix«. ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) GrenzEcho from March 5, 2011 (accessed on October 19, 2014)
  3. ↑ Christoph Wendt: It's wonderful to walk across the moor. Out and about in the High Fens, Europe's most beautiful high moor. Meyer & Meyer Verlag, Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89899-384-5 , p. 103.
  4. ↑ Michaela Brück: Venn-Witterung: The cross of Belle-Croix is ​​being restored. brf.be from April 23, 2011 (accessed October 19, 2014)
  5. ^ François Detry: Le Christ de Belle-Croix en Fagnes bientôt remis en place. ArdenneWeb of April 24, 2011 (accessed October 19, 2014)
  6. ^ Jean Brasseur: Le Christ replacé en toute discrétion! In: L'Avenir . December 6, 2011 (accessed October 19, 2014)
  7. ↑ a b Christoph Wendt: On the way in the Ardennes and the bordering landscapes forays through Wallonia and excursions to France and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. GEV, Eupen 2006, ISBN 90-5433-170-4 , p. 43.
  8. ^ Carl Kamp: The High Fens. Face of a landscape. 5th edition. Eifelverein, Düren 1980, p. 75.
  9. ^ A b c Günter Metz: On the way in the High Fens. Hike and Explore. With special section memorial crosses in the Venn. 2nd Edition. GEV, Eupen 2004, ISBN 90-5433-162-3 , p. 56.

Coordinates: 50 ° 31 '59.23 "  N , 6 ° 2' 50.57"  E