Belgian Roadside Chapels

When covid started last year, Fr. Edward Looney the pastor at St. Francis & St Mary's of Brussels started doing a virtual tour of the various Belgian Chapels.

The wayside votive chapels of Northeast Wisconsin are a religious tradition brought from the old world. In the 1850s, Belgian immigrants began settling in northeast Brown, northwest Kewaunee, and southern Door counties, bringing their cherished culture and customs. Primarily devout Roman Catholics, they made their homes in a wilderness where crude roads and few churches made it difficult to assemble and practice their faith. To compensate, some settlers continued the Belgian tradition of building a family chapel, often to give thanks for prayers or to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary or a special saint.

The Belgian Wayside Chapels are evidence of the historic faith of the Belgian settlers, and of the determination of their modern descendants to preserve the Belgian culture and way of life. Today, more than a dozen of these chapels are lovingly maintained, often by descendants of the families who built them.

Fr Looney started a Facebook page for his virtual tour and visits. https://www.facebook.com/BelgianRoadsideChapels

That prompted me to try and create an online map for the chapels. You'll find paper brochures in most of the chapels that were produced by the Belgian Heritage Center a while back. However since they encompass three counties the map lacks resolution. For anyone who isn't adventurous when it comes to rural roads that map mighth be problematic.

http://belgianchapels.org/

Fr. Looney has now created a gofund me page to "create aprofessional documentary and submit it to major Catholic and secular media outlets like EWTN, Catholic TV, Shalom World, Wisconsin Public Television, PBS Wisconsin, and others."

https://www.gofundme.com/f/faith-along-the-road-documentary

I am surprised how often they get visited. Most have a guest book in them. I haven't seen one that didn't have an entry more than a week old. And while a number of the visitors have Belgian last names, there are plenty of Illinois tourists checking them out... then the more odd entries like folks from Czechoslovakia, Hawaii etc.