On the 11th of July 1302, the Battle of the Golden Spurs was fought outside the city walls of Kortrijk.
Every patriotic Flemish person knows the story, all about the weavers who defeated the arrogant French knights and hung their golden spurs in the local church.
The 1302 battle happened more than seven centuries ago, during that distant period Barbara Tuchman called 'the calamitous 14th century'.
But it is part of the Flemish national story, like Gettysburg in the United States, or Agincourt in English history books. It gives the Flemish an identity, a national day.
Nothing physical has survived from 1302, but the city has created a new €1.25 million immersive exhibition dedicated to the battle that opens today in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
