Bertem (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Bertem will restore the 16th-century Saint Peter church and cemetery for €289,000 with €150,000 from Flanders, showing local pride in heritage, say Marc Morris and Ben Wets.
The project to fix the Saint Peter church and cemetery in Bertem, a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium, will cost about 289,000 euros. The Flemish government will pay more than half of that, about 150,000 euros. The rest of the money will come from the town of Bertem.
Marc Morris, who is in charge of history for the town, said that many people in Bertem love this place and are proud of it. He said the church and the area around it are very important to the town. With help from the government and the town, this important place will be protected for many years to come.
Will Bertem’s historic Saint Peter’s church and cemetery be saved?
According to the officials, work is starting soon to fix the problems at the Saint Peter church in Bertem. The cemetery wall is cracked and falling apart, so they will rebuild some of it and fix the mortar between the bricks.
They will also put in anchors to make sure the wall doesn’t fall down because of the ground moving. The mortuary, which was built in the early 1900s, will also be fixed up. All of this will make the area safer and protect the old church, which is from the 16th century.
Ben Wets, the person responsible for preserving old buildings, states that one should take care of such places because they reflect our past and we should preserve them for the future. He stated that persons proud of their past don’t allow it to crumble down.
They are planning to fix the wall and the mortuary soon, using methods and materials that are similar to the original ones. This will keep the place looking like it did before and make sure it can be used by the community.
Minister of Immovable Heritage Ben Wets (N-VA) says:
“A cemetery is so much more than a piece of land – it is a place of peace and of connection with those who were dear to us.”
The Saint Peter church in Bertem is a very old and important place for the community. Maps from the 16th century show that there were already graves and a wall around the cemetery. The cemetery was made bigger in the early 1900s, and they built a new wall and a mortuary. Time and bad weather have damaged the wall and the mortuary. They have big cracks and are starting to fall apart. If they don’t fix them soon, they could collapse and injure people.
