Zottegem
About this Place
Zottegem is a town in East Flanders at the northern edge of the Flemish Ardennes. The town describes itself as the “Gateway to the Flemish Ardennes”, reflecting its position between the more urban north of the province and the rolling countryside to the south.
Zottegem is particularly associated with Lamoral, Count of Egmont, one of the most prominent nobles of the sixteenth-century Low Countries. Egmont owned the castle in Zottegem and, after his execution in Brussels in 1568, was buried in the family crypt beneath the town’s Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. His presence is still strongly felt through Egmont Castle, the Egmont crypt, statues and a small museum devoted to his life and legacy.
Beer also formed part of the town’s local identity. Brouwerij Crombé was one of Zottegem’s long-established breweries and produced beers including Oud Zottegems Bier and Egmont Zottegemse Tripel. Brewing has ceased at Crombé’s historic Zottegem brewery, but the business and its beers survive, with production now undertaken by Brouwerij Strubbe in Ichtegem.
