Unique charter from 1190 to view on Heritage Day

Hendrik Callewier, of the State Archives in Kortrijk, proudly shows the restored charter in which Count of Flanders Philip van den Elzas granted city rights to Kortrijk as early as 1190. Dutch specialists have restored about a hundred of the city’s oldest archive documents. “These oldest charters give us all the information we know about the history of Kortrijk. From a historical point of view, they are crucial for our knowledge of the city. You have documents in Latin, in French or old Dutch. Sometimes also in handwriting, hard to read.”

Link with Johnny Turbo and the Easter fair

The charter is the oldest proof that Kortrijk is a city. Based on this document, lamented folk singer Johny Turbo sang: It’s 800 years since the city of Kortrijk exists. Long live the city!’. Other documents mention the construction of the Broel towers and of a castle commissioned by the dukes of Burgundy. We also find the earliest information about the Easter fair in it. The documents also contain important information about the development of the cloth industry, to which the city owed its wealth in the Middle Ages. Thanks to one of the documents, part of a wall from the time of the Battle of the Golden Spurs could recently be excavated.

Heritage Day: Beastly

The theme of this year’s heritage day is ‘beastly’. The State Archives therefore selected a number of unique pieces in which animals play the leading role. Lions, of course, but also dogs, wolves and even a whale. The charter of Philip van den Elzas bears a unique equestrian seal, with horse. The other charters are also stamped.

You can admire everything once, Sunday from ten to six in the evening in the State Archives in Gezellestraat.