Office de Tourisme Cassel Horizons

This small village is located on the banks of Peene Becque, between the hills of Tom and Balenberg. The railway track goes also through this depression.

The first mention of this village was in 1107. In the Frank language, Huchtin-ghesela would mean the residence “zeele” of genitive “ing” of a certain “Ufto”.

Without any doubt, the oldest monument is the hummock which stands in a pasture, in the north of the church. We think this hummock was made by men and served to protect our ancestors threatened by the Normans. It was also the origin of one of the most powerful seigneuries of coastal Flanders.

A big part of the church, where you could find some Romanesque elements of the 12^th century, dates from 1527. It is topped by a beautiful little steeple covered with slate. In the front of the church, there are still ferruginous sandstones, extracted from the mounts of Flanders, and used since the 11^th century in construction. The wood vault looks like a hull of ship; the heads of the beams are sculpted. The pulpit and the communion pew, in sculpted wood, date from the beginning of the 18^th century. The tombstone dates from 1557.

Outside, you could see a rustic wayside cross: the blood of Christ is represented by an iron rod and flows into a chalice supported by a cherub.

A tablet on the wall reminds the memory of Father Despicht, who was born in Ochtezeele in 1870 and who was a great defender of Flemish language in the Westhoek.