Opbrakel is a village and ''

deelgemeente A deelgemeente (, literally ''part-municipality'') or section ( French) is a subdivision of a municipality in Belgium and, until March 2014, in the Netherlands as well. Belgium Each municipality in Belgium that existed as a separate entity on 1 J ...

'' (sub-municipality) of the municipality of

Brakel Brakel () is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek and the Flemish Ardennes. The name is derived from a Carolingian villa ''Braglo'' first mentioned in 866 and located in the center of Opbrakel. Since 1970, t ...

. It is located in the

Denderstreek The Denderstreek or Denderland is a region in Belgium. It is named after the river Dender. Though the river stretches over three provinces, Hainaut, East Flanders and Flemish Brabant, the region called after the river is situated in East Flander ...

in the province of

East Flanders , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of Oost-Vlaanderen.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van O ...

in Belgium. It used to be an independent municipality until 1971 when it was merged into Brakel.

Overview

The area used to be covered in forest, but only the to the south of Opbrakel has remained. The forest has become a nature area and varies in height from 65 to 130 metres. The village was first mentioned in 866 as villa Braglo, and is a Germanic forest name. Opbrakel used to be a ''

heerlijkheid A ''heerlijkheid'' (a Dutch word; pl. ''heerlijkheden''; also called ''heerschap''; Latin: ''Dominium'') was a landed estate that served as the lowest administrative and judicial unit in rural areas in the Dutch-speaking Low Countries before 1800. ...

'', and used to have a castle named Herenhof which was demolished in 1863. In 1885, a railway station opened on the

Zottegem Zottegem (, Sotteghem and Sottegem in older English and French language sources) is a municipality located in Belgium and more particularly in Flanders, in the province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Zottegem proper and ...

Ronse Ronse (; french: Renaix, ) is a Belgian city and a municipality in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality only encompasses the city of Ronse proper. History Early settlements to 14th century The hills around Ronse show clu ...

railway line. The railway line closed in 1963. The

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

Verrebeekmolen was built between 1789 and 1803. In 1909, an electro motor was installed in the windmill, and by 1938 the windmill was no longer in operation. It was repaired between 1996 and 1997. It is in service every last Sunday of the month and open for visitors. The St Martinus Church is a three aisled basilica-like church with an

octagonal In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

tower from the 13th century. The church dates from the mid 18th century. Unlike most churches it is

oriented In mathematics, orientability is a property of some topological spaces such as real vector spaces, Euclidean spaces, surfaces, and more generally manifolds that allows a consistent definition of "clockwise" and "counterclockwise". A space is ...

to the north. In 1963, the municipality borders were corrected based on language, and the neighbourhood of d'Hutte which used to belong to

Flobecq Flobecq (; nl, Vloesberg, ; pcd, Flôbek) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It borders to the municipalities of Ellezelles (to the west) and Lessines (to the east) in the same province and to Brakel in t ...

was transferred to Opbrakel. The municipality covered an area of . In 1971, Opbrakel was merged into the municipality of

and became a ''

''. The village is mainly an agricultural community, but is developing into a commuter's village.

Notable people

Serge Baguet Serge Baguet (18 August 1969 – 9 February 2017) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer. Career He was the son of the ex-cyclist Roger Baguet. He was married to Sandra Rasschaert and they have a son (Sam). Baguet started his profe ...

(1969–2017), professional road bicycle racer * Patrick du Chau (born 1959), former cyclist * Lietbertus ( 1010–1076), bishop of Cambrai and Catholic Saint * Sandy Martens (born 1972), retired football player

Gallery

File:Opbrakel - Verrebeekmolen 1.jpg, Windmill Verrebeekmolen File:Opbrakel - Brakel - België.jpg, St Martinus Church File:Hof te Wolfskerke - Opbrakel - België.jpg, Former abbey farm Hof te Wolfskerke File:Bakhuis Hellenhoek - 2015-1.jpg, Oven Hellenhoek

References

{{Authority control Brakel Populated places in East Flanders