The Vicarage, Houtem

It is best to park alongside the hedge and then go on foot.

In January 1915, when the bombardments made the situation in Veuene too dangerous, it was decided to move the Headquarters of the Belgian Army to the vicarage in the tiny village of Houtem. The headquarters consisted of the king (as commander-in-chief), the army staff and their various ancillary services.

Houtem underwent a transformation, and was later the site for a printing press, a post office, a car park, an airfield and a power station. The headquarters stayed in the village until October 1918, when it moved to Torhout (which had recently been recaptured).

In the cemetery to the right of the vicarage there is a memorial column marking the grave of Lieutenant-General Félix Wielemans, the Army's Chief of Staff. He has been credited with the idea of flooding the IJzer plain to stop the German advance in 1914. He died of pneumonia or Spanish flu on 5 January 1917.

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