Fifteen chapels

Sacred mountain

In 1815, Amandus Helsen, chaplain of Mol-Centrum, took the initiative of translating the stations of the cross into fifteen small chapels. Each chapel depicts one of the stations in the story of Jesus’s suffering. The Heilige Kruysberg, a dune hill in the heath landscape of Achterbos, was chosen as the location. There had already been a Heilige Kruyskapel – a chapel devoted to the cross – at the site for some time. The chapels quickly grew into a pilgrimage site, a place of devotion where the people of Achterbos and environs came to ward off calamity and negotiate happiness. Today the stations of the cross are still the object of prayer on Good Friday. But the Kapellekens attract many visitors on other days of the year: people searching for peace and quiet.

The role of Kempens Landschap

Our organisation purchased land in order to preserve the surroundings of the chapels.