Source: 123rf
In Belgium, in the Flemish province of Limburgo, Borgloon it is a village of ten thousand inhabitants whose name - to most people - will mean nothing.
However, whoever reaches it can witness a unique show. That of one “ghost” church. Built in 2011 by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh along a cycle touring route, it is erected on a reinforced concrete base and sees the use of thirty tons of steel and two thousand small columns. The name of this particular church sculpture? Reading Between the Lines, and the reason is easy to say: it is extraordinary to see the light that passes through its columns, especially at sunset when it really resembles a mirage.
It is a real installation, the church of Deposit wage. And it is also aoptical illusion. Not only is it an exercise in style, a statement on the permanence of architecture; it is also a place to reflect, to meditate, to get away from the world at least for a while.
But it is actually this area in itself that deserves to be discovered. Limburg is the easternmost province of Flanders, bordering the Netherlands and the Belgian provinces of Liège, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp. It is an area full of history, but almost unknown, between Belgium and Holland and easily reachable from Maastricht. What is there to see here? First, i windmills: you can organize a real tour among these architectures, some ancient and others renovated, hidden in the woods or built along the rivers. And, for those who even want to spend the night there, in Maasmechelen there is a mill used as a hotel. Then there are the coal mines, whose story is well told by the Beringen museum.
And if you also wanted to move to Dutch Lamburg, after an obligatory stop Maastricht – romantic and on a human scale, perfectly visitable on foot or by bicycle -, which is connected to Italy with low cost flights from the main cities, its hills, which the locals call mountains and which are the only hills in this area of Europe (the highest point is the Vaalseberg, with cycle routes loved by amateurs and professionals). Or Valkenburg aan de Geul, with the ruins of its ancient castle. Unmissable stops in a region that deserves to be known.
