Over 60,000 people visited the Bokrijk estate in Limburg during the Flemish Easter holiday. More than 30,000 also visited the Open Air Museum, heritage site dedicated to life in Flanders in earlier centuries. The figure is up by a quarter in comparison with the Easter holidays last year. A major restoration project, over the past eight years, is soon coming to a close as the last cottage reaches completion.
60,000 visitors at Bokrijk this Easter holiday, Open Air Museum welcomes quarter more visitors
Colin Clapson
Published:
Igor Philtjens is the chairman of the Bokrijk estate and looks back at the Easter holiday with satisfaction. "More than 30,300 people visited the Open Air Museum. That is 25 per cent more than last year. Across the entire Bokrijk estate, we welcomed more than 60,000 people."
Visitors were able to learn more about ancient Easter customs and games, see young animals and witness Living History. On Easter Day and Easter Monday, the Christian festival was celebrated as it was 100 years ago. This included an Easter sermon by a parish priest, throwing loaves of bread for the poor and children collecting 8,008 Easter eggs.
Restoration of the last cottage at the Open Air Museum
The Open Air Museum shows how Flemish people lived in earlier centuries in buildings dating from an earlier age. The barn from Lommel-Kattenbos is the last edifice to be restored. When that is finished, all the cottages in the Open Air Museum will have been restored. ‘Over the past eight years, we have restored 124 monuments,’ Mr Philtjens explains.
‘The work was not only done by our own professionals, our visitors too rolled up their sleeves. That is the hardware, there is also the software: we have compiled stories and documented the techniques used by craftsmen. In this way that knowledge can be passed on."
The Flemish government funded the restorations to the tune of 25 million euros.
Blooming Magnolias are a popular attraction
But it was not only the Open Air Museum that lured people to the Bokrijk estate. Thanks to the fine Limburgian weather, a lot of visitors also found their way to the playground, the park, the Cycling through Water attraction as well as the Bokrijk Arboretum, where the Magnolias are currently in bloom.