Top 20 Natural Monuments around Berloz

At the highest point of Helshoven, you can now enjoy a breathtaking view over the Haspengouw landscape. Artist Frits Jeuris has created a unique work of art from dozens of felled fruit trees from the area. “Helsh(ea)ven”, a wooden work of art consisting of 90 standard cherry trees, each fifty years old, was hit by the cherry plague virus at the end of 2016, a contagious plant disease that causes small fruits on cherries. Now the felled trees are getting a second life. The work of art symbolizes the dynamic landscape of Haspengouw.

A beautiful area of (only) 34.5 hectares, characterized by reed beds, cattail ponds, and pools fringed by shrubs or with open banks... These diverse habitats offer countless bird species places to forage, nest, hibernate, or rest during their migration. No fewer than 212 species have already been observed! (Source: www.natagora.be)

Deciduous forest traversed by the Hornebeek stream. In recent decades, it has dried out considerably, especially during the summer, with the stream also drying up because the Water Group operates a drinking water extraction facility here. This permit is expiring so the stream and wet forest can slowly recover.

Through the Hornebos forest of deciduous trees and shrubs. Nature management here means "leave everything that falls or blows over." The Hornebeek stream accompanies you along the avenue. The first source immediately runs to the left of the road, while the second source emerges 200m from the right, passing under the road, where they continue together.

This monument is located at the Tjenneboom. And to know what the "Tjenne" monument stands for, it is useful to know what the Tjenneboom has to do with. And you can read that at https://www.komoot.com/nl-nl/highlight/4011561 Quote: "Tjenne is dialect for Jeanne or Jeanna Michiels who was wrongly burned here in 1667 and was doomed to hell. By carrying her to heaven, the statue symbolizes tolerance above all".

Experience the divine feeling of floating here...

Here, at the gallows, you are at the highest point in Helshoven. The artwork 'Helsh(ea)ven' by Frits Jeuris, known to most as the 'floating chapel', invites you to enjoy that landscape and the work itself. It is made from cherry tree wood. At the end of 2016, the 50-year-old high-stemmed trees in Helshoven had to be cut down due to a viral disease, Little Cherry, which causes tasteless cherries. The gallows represents death. Dead trees. And the dead person. And then there are the trees that are given a second life in the artwork, the floating chapel. An end, a beginning, a view, between heaven and Helshoven, inviting reflection, looking and of course what the work is best known for: that strange image of a chapel that seems to float.

From the information board on the other side of the path: "On April 30, 2004, the statue of witch Tjenne was inaugurated. The Tjenne statue was made by sculptor Gerard Moonen, commissioned by the land consolidation Mettekoven. Tjenne is dialect for Jeanne or Jeanna Michiels who was wrongly burned here in 1667 and doomed to hell. By carrying her to heaven anyway, the statue symbolizes tolerance above all."