After a long journey from Diest to Leuven, the bell was officially handed over to the Abbey of Park Heritage Site on February 28, 2025, by the alderman of culture, Monique De Dobbeleer, and heritage expert Elise Verhaegen. The bell had been on display in the city museum De Hofstadt in Diest for several years and has now returned home thanks to a generous gesture from the city council of Diest.
A Small Bell with a Big Story
Cast in 1712 by renowned bell founders Claes Noorden and Jan Albert de Grave in Amsterdam, the bell was acquired for the abbey in 1730 by Abbot Hiëronymus de Waerseghere. However, shortly after its arrival, it was replaced by a bell made by the Leuven-based founder Andreas Frans Vanden Gheyn. As a result, this small bell did not make the dramatic journey to Saint Peter’s Church in 1811 and escaped the devastation of the Leuven Fire in 1914, which melted most of the other bells.
What followed was an unexpected turn in the bell’s history: it ended up in Diest, where it served as a school bell. In the 19th century, Fidèle-Johannes Raymaekers, who was both a prior of the abbey and a teacher at the Diest city college, brought it there. Later, the bell was placed in the museum De Hofstadt, labeled as a school bell. In 1990, Leuven carillonneur Luc Rombouts discovered its true origin as a carillon bell.
In 2018, this little bell even served as a model for the small bells of the new Peace Carillon. And now, thanks to the generous gesture of the city council of Diest, it has returned to the Park Abbey. Soon, the bell will be part of the permanent museum exhibition, where, alongside melted bronze from another historic abbey bell, it will tell the rich history of the abbey.