The legend of the Flora Goddess statue

According to a legend, the daughter of the lord of Veltwijck, who owned a castle in the town of Ekeren, near Antwerp, Belgium, fell in love with a simple servant working in the gardens of the castle. The lord did everything to stop his virgin daughter to be deflowered by the servant and out of despair, he locked his daughter up in one of the towers of his castle. He also banned the servant from coming near to the castle ever again.

But the love between the two was so intense that the daughter got very depressed. She missed her lover so much that she jumped out of her jailed window into the pond surrounding the castle to escape her unlucky life. Unfortunately, she drowned.

Picture by Harry Fabel

Her father was very remorseful and as a sign of mourning, he wanted to put a statue in the garden of his castle remembering his daughter. He didn't want the image of the statue to resemble the image of his daughter because out of shame he could not face her memory anymore, the statue was also placed as far from the castle as possible, but still, on the castle grounds. He ordered to make the statue just the Goddess Flora. Because just like this Goddess, his daughter loved flowers and she could spend hours walking by the flowerbeds in the castle garden.

The forever grieving father also wanted a procession to walk through the garden every year walking past his daughter's statue. The procession did go through the park and when the procession stepped under the castle's gatehouse, the tower bell was sounded. The last time that the procession walked through the park was in 1966, after that year the father and his daughter were forever forgotten and their story turned into a legend.

But still, today, when you walk through the gatehouse you can hear the tower bell, all do it has been removed many years ago. Also, the Flora Goddess is still standing in the garden of the castle, looking like it's been searching for a long-lost love that went wrong.

Picture by Harry Fabel

Belgian kids got to drink beer during their school lunch

There are almost 800 different kinds of beer in Belgium. One kind was very popular till the70's, it was even given to kids at school during their lunch break. Beer to kids? You must be kidding! Well, let's go a bit further into this. The beers we are talking about were so-called table beers, a kind of beer that was specially made for people who can't drink alcohol. So it's was a kind of alcohol-free beer, a kind, because there was some alcohol in it. between 1 and 4 percent alcohol. The most popular table beer was Piedboeuf, it had 1.1 percent alcohol in it and there was a lot of sugar added to make it as sweet as Coca-Cola. A good marketing strategy made that it was well distributed in almost all schools in Belgium. The reason was that it would be very healthy for them, because of the natural ingredients and of course the sugar. It would make them grow fast and strong. It would even be good for pregnant women and for women that were breastfeeding their baby'

How the Belgians founded New York

In order to avoid any confusion in this story, it is important to know that in the sixteenth century, the Netherlands covered a part of northern France and Lorraine, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the present Netherlands. Its inhabitants were called the Belgians, and the maps represented the country in the shape of a lion: the "Leo Belgicus". Besides, numerous maps from the sixteenth century showed this territory under the name of Belgium. The latter failed into disuse for the benefit of the Netherlands and only reappeared in 1789 on the occasion of the first Belgian revolution. In 1831 Belgium became an independent country. Today Belgium is a lot smaller and is divided into two big regions mostly based on the language they speak in that particular region. In the north, there is Flanders where they speak Flemish (Dutch) and in the south, there is the Walloon part where they speak French. Almost in the center and between the two parts is the region of the capital Brussels.

Belgium has the largest chocolate factory in the world

The largest chocolate factory in the world is located in Wieze, Belgium. Barry Callebaut produces around 270,000 tonnes a year, from cocoa bean to chocolate, making it the largest chocolate supplier in the world. Picture by Pixabay In Wieze you will also find the first of the seventeen Chocolate Academy centers that have since been distributed all over the world. A completely new building was recently opened, making the Chocolate Academy center in Wieze the largest center in the world. Picture by Pixabay The Belgian chocolate sector exports its quality chocolate to the entire world. Two-thirds of both the industrial chocolate and the end products are exported abroad. That's because there is a Belgian chocolate code developed in 2007. The Belgian chocolate code must ensure that the term 'Belgian chocolate' is only used for chocolate that actually comes from Belgium.

Amazing Belgium

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