Church | XX | | Roman Catholic Church
On 8 November 2014, a Canadian delegation from Toronto came to bring back an object to this church. During WWI, the church lay in ruins and Canadian soldiers watched over this village. A chaplain entered the ruins and saved an altar stone from destruction. After some wanderings and service in a Canadian church, this altar stone disappeared into the archives cupboard. When the archives were checked in the spring of 2014, the indications on the reverse showed where the stone came from. A Canadian delegation came to Northern France for the big commemoration of 11 November and at the same time brought this altar stone back to the church. Together with the parishioners, the principal, teachers and pupils of the primary school Nieuwkerke this piece of church history was handed over to the church council in a beautiful ceremony. This altar stone got a nice place in the church. Some exhibition panels highlight the village and its church before and during WWI.
From the Middle Ages onwards, the cloth industry brought prosperity to Flanders and the villages in the Westhoek. When the necessary supply of English wool stopped in the early 16th century, unemployment and the economy came to a standstill. Speculation with the grain supply caused the inhabitants to rebel against the administrative power. Church leaders also share in the blame, partly because the German church reformer Luther published the Bible in the vernacular. The rebels called themselves Beggars (an old French term for beggar) and after a while they went on a rampage. The Spanish government responds with the Inquisition. The Geuzen sympathisers go into hiding or have to flee and seek refuge in England, Germany and later the Netherlands.
Nowadays, Nieuwkerke lies on the border with France. Until 1713, the border of Flanders lay further into France until the town of Saint-Omer (on the Aa). A few decades before the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the French king Louis XIV occupied this area. With this Peace, the Kasselrijen Belle-Ambacht and Cassel, among others, were added to the French crown: Nieuwkerke and Dranouter belonged to Belle-Ambacht and Westouter to Cassel. From 1769 onwards, border corrections are carried out along the entire border line between the Austrian Netherlands and France. In October 1769 the villages of Nieuwkerke and Dranouter came back to the Austrian Netherlands in exchange for a number of enclaves along the river Leie a little further on. Westouter did the same 10 years later in exchange for part of Watou. These border adjustments were signed in the church. Some border posts relating to this transfer can still be found on the current boundary line.