The Orphanage
By Alain Mijngheer
29 Jul 2009
Urbex : The Orphanage
This is the story of The Orphanage of As. Called orphanage ,by the locals, but never was one.
In 1917 the German Air force had an Aircombatschool or FSS in As, a little village in Belgium. The officers , needing a place to stay, had this villa built by local craftsmen.
We all know how WW1 ended. The Belgian Air force took over the airfield until 1924 when it was closed due to the non stable underground of the airstrip.
In 1925 Countess Emilie de Beeckman-Wittouck bought the villa and some surrounding land . The Countess, the story goes she and her husband were very devout ( and very rich) persons, had plans with this villa. It would become a colony for weak children. In those days various associations organized this kind of activities for children. The National Works for Katholic School holidays (or NWKS), founded in 1921, was one of those. In 1927 the Countess donated villa and land to the National Association for weak children. A religious order, The Sisters of Love ( depending of Sint Vincent a Paulo), who's main activity was, still is by the way, taking care of children, the weak, etc... were to run the colony. This under the wings of the NWKS, having generations of children spending their colony days there.
In more recent years, as the fashion of these colonies faded away, another organization took over the villa. Kinderzorg (Childcare) placed children, who lived in troubled homes, here. No orphans mind you. In 2003 Kinderzorg also leaved, being relocated in a more central and urban area.
There are still a few toys remaining as is some clothing, a weird thing to see these silent witnesses abandoned and perhaps forgotten. All that had any value has been stolen, the rest trashed by vandals. Other visitors ? Yes, Urban Explorers (Urbex) who leave nothing but their footprints and take nothing but photographs. At night a non safe environment being visited by drug addicts and dealers.
The future ? An unconfirmed source told me this place was recently acquired by the Town Council to be turned into a resort for short term holidays. This time for children and adults....
3 responses
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Charles Hess said (30 Jul 2009):
POwerful story and photos.
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Michael Adams gave props (30 Jul 2009):
Wow. Great story with some wonderful photos!
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Regenia Brabham gave props (1 Aug 2009):
A great story and some fantastic images.
