The beguinage of Our Lady
Our-Lady Ter Hooyen is a béguinage, a former community for beguines — women who lived a devout life without taking formal religious vows. Beguinages were a remarkable medieval invention: independent, self-governing and much more common in the Low Countries than anywhere else. The lanes and houses here still keep their enclosing calm. It's a reminder that there used to be more ways for a woman to run her own life than the history books usually admit.