Chapel route around Roeselare

This route starts in Tielt. Before leaving - or after your trip - be sure to take a walk through this town with its special history. The oldest mention of Tiletum dates from 1105 and concerns the tax paid by the lord of a Tielt villa. In 1245 Tielt was granted city rights, and in 1275 the cloth hall was built. This was followed by the holding of an annual fair (given the right by Philip the Bold), an aldermen's house, the Friars Minor and a Latin school in 1686. In between, part of Tielt was destroyed several times by a city fire or by the people of Ghent who once again came to war. During the First World War, the headquarters of the German Fourth Army was located in a number of Tielt mansions, all of which were requisitioned by the German occupiers. General Field Marshal Duke Albrecht van Wurttemberg was commander-in-chief from 1914 to 1917 and was subsequently succeeded by Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin. Both stayed in the house at Hoogstraat 26, which was owned by the then alderman and later mayor Rene Colle. The army consisted of 180,000 men who were active in Belgium. The German Emperor Wilhelm II visited here several times. During the Second World War, Tielt was bombed several times, which made reconstruction necessary after the liberation by the Polish Armored Division under General Maczek on 8 September 1944. On a square in Tielt is a memorial with a Sherman tank to commemorate the liberation by the Poles. It was unveiled by General Maczek in September 1979. Your bike ride will take you past a number of special chapels to Roeselare. Here you walk in the footsteps of Albrecht Rodenbach along the many historical gems in the city and surroundings. View Leonardo da Vinci's bicycle design in the National Cycling Museum or catch your breath in the Sterrebos or in the Kleiputten nature reserve. Also recommended for shopaholics, this city! If you cycle along Flemish roads or through the cities in this region, you will see many chapels, silent witnesses of the veneration for all kinds of saints, but especially for Our Lady. Roeselare is really dotted with chapels. You will find the small forest chapel, a field chapel on the edge of the Brakelbos, dedicated to Our Lady. The pier chapel with a whitewashed façade, whose builder is unknown, dates from the end of the 19th century. The bomb chapel is still visited: every year a group of pilgrims from the church in Koolskamp go to the chapel - on June 20 to commemorate the miracle of 1944. Miraculously, no one was killed in a heavy bombardment near the bomb chapel: none of the visitors who were praying in and around the chapel at that time were even injured.