*4.3. A Spiritual Landscape*

The presence of the well spring of St. Odulphus hints at a history before the construction of the church, or even the settlement of the village afterwards destroyed. Typical for the Flemish rural area, a small devotional chapel south-east of the island marks the larger site. In an informal way, and together with some benches and trees, the chapel seals the character of a simple and common spirituality radiating from the landscape. Located at the source of the well, it translates the symbolism of water as a representation of the origin of the site. Referring to baptism, the waters of creation, and to the Red Sea that the people of Israel cross on their way to the promised land, the element of water plays an important role in the Christian funeral rite. In the context of the biblical flood-story and the water shedding out of Christ's wounds on the cross, a combination of the dreadful and even deadly powers of water with its life-giving qualities come to the fore. However, the element of water and its many symbolic meanings is also universal and bears different meanings from an anthropological point of view, open to other religions and cultures.

The dual symbolism of water, having both the possibility of giving life and destroying it, can be translated in the double use of the surrounding fields, combining its natural or agricultural properties with the gentle layout for urn burial in a sustainable way. Edging the island, the fields allow for a continuation of the mentioned passage, e.g., a procession from the church building to the particular grave, carrying the ashes over the water, accompanied by a blessing, a prayer or another form of goodbye and last tribute. The figures illustrate some landscape transformations in a schematic way. Rather than a *tabula rasa*, the proposals introduce transformations that take the existing (natural) properties and their broad symbolic potential (be it ecological–environmental or spiritual) as a basis for a new and open interpretation. Figure 9a shows the "cloister"-like arrangement of graves following the existing trees edging the field. Figure 9b transforms the terrain into an urn forest, providing the space for natural burial while planting various tree types in an irregular way10. The existing low-stem orchard in Figure 9c can be adapted to the less dense but ecologically sounder high-stem orchard. Beyond a common and traditional form of agriculture in the region, the orchard is an archetypical and age old example of cultivation. The cyclic and seasonal expression of trees blossoming, bearing fruit, being harvested and loosing leaves carries a strong connotation to life and death. As such, it can also be associated with the popular and contemporary custom of the so-called "birth forest" (Figure 10). Introduced by many municipalities in Flanders, it allows families to celebrate the birth of a new-born baby with the planting of a tree, thus in addition to the burial site closing the circle of life.

<sup>10</sup> This is a rather recent evolution in view of burials and only legally possible in Belgium since 2016. The request for natural burials is increasing and for the moment (2020) there are only five places in Belgium where this is possible.

**Figure 9.** Situation plan of the St. Odulphus site and the surrounding fields: (**a**) Urn "cloister": the graves are positioned parallel with the edges of the field and surrounded by a line of trees; (**b**) Urn forest: natural burial among irregular plantation of trees; (**c**) Urn orchard: the low stem orchard is replaced by a less dense high stem orchard with the graves positioned in circles around them.

**Figure 10.** Birth forest Gentbrugse Meersen Ghent Belgium: celebration of the birth of a new-born babies with the planting of young trees (photograph by Patrick Henry, © Stad Gent).
