VSC - First Revelation - 1973 1/2

Vates Spiritual Community http://vatesnews.blogspot.com Place where the First Revelation took place. Heule Watermolen (Kortrijk), a place in Belgium. Please note: amateur recording. Professional footage will be added later. Kortrijk (official name in Dutch; French: Courtrai; Latin: Cortoriacum) is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province West Flanders. The wider municipality comprises the city of Kortrijk proper and the towns of Aalbeke, Bellegem, Bissegem, Heule, Kooigem, Marke, and Rollegem. With 73,657 inhabitants Kortrijk is the seventh largest city in the Flemish region. The city is situated on the River Lys, 42 km (26 miles) southwest of Ghent and 25 km (15 miles) northeast of Lille in France. Both Kortrijk and Lille are part of the same transnational urban area with around 1,700,000 inhabitants. The arrondissement of Kortrijk is both a judicial and an administrative arrondissement. History - Origins to the 13th century Cortoriacum was founded by the Romans at an important crossroads near the Lys River, then developed as a typical Gallo-Roman vicus. In the 9th century, Baldwin II, Count of Flanders established fortifications against the Normans. The town gained its city charter in 1190 from Philip of Alsace. The population growth required new defensive walls, part of which can still be seen today (the Broeltorens). In the 13th century, the battles between Fernando of Portugal, Count of Flanders and his first cousin, King Louis VIII of France, led to the destruction of the city. The Counts of Flanders had it rebuilt soon after. From that time, Kortrijk gained great importance as a centre of linen production. Battle of the Golden Spurs In 1302, the population of Bruges started a successful uprising against the French, who had annexed Flanders a couple of years earlier. On May 18, the French population in that city was murdered, an event that could not go unpunished. The famous ensuing Battle of the Golden Spurs (Dutch: Guldensporenslag) between the Flemish people, mostly commoners and farmers, and Philip the Fairs knights took place near Kortrijk on July 11, resulting in a massive victory for Flanders. This date is now remembered as a national holiday by the whole Flemish community. Following a new uprising by the Flemish in 1323, but this time against their own Count Louis I, the French invaded again. These Flemish acquisitions were consolidated by the French at the Battle of Cassel (1328). Louis Is son, Louis II, then Philip van Artevelde briefly regained the city in 1381 but lost it again the following year at the Battle of Roosebeke, resulting in a new wave of plundering and destruction. 15th century until now Most of the 15th century was prosperous under the Dukes of Burgundy, until the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482, which ushered in renewed fighting with France. The 16th century was marked by the uprising of the Netherlands in 1539, by Charles Vs heavy-handed reprisal to it, and later by the confrontations engendered by the Reformation. Louis XIVs reign saw Kortrijk occupied by the French five times in sixty years and its former fortifications razed to the ground. The Treaty of Utrecht finally gave the whole area to Austria. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, the textile industry, based on flax, and the general economy of the city could finally prosper again. Kortrijk was heavily bombed in the summer of 1917, but even more damaged by the allied bombing in 1944. Most of the city that we see today was rebuilt after the war.