Hallerbos purple-blue miracle

We made it to the Hallerbos Wood this year as well. We could not miss the purple-blue miracle of the Wood.

The Hallerbos Wood is located on the outskirts of the city of Halle, not far from Brussels, in Belgium. A small forest of about 555 hectares, on the border between Flanders and Wallonia of Belgium, the Hallerbos Wood becomes a magical place each spring.

Hallerbos is a young wood. The place was owned by different families from various countries over the centuries. During the World War I most of the forest trees were removed by Germans. In 1929 the forest become the property of the Belgian State. During the following 20 years the Hallerbos is reforested. That is the reason of why the forest looks young.

We first visited Hallerbos in 2012. The Wood colours are like the wine; they change from one year to another and the natural light along with the weather influence their tones.

The Wood turns into a purple-blue carpet as soon as the wild blue bells bloom. The renewed carpet is built on two previous colours: yellow from the wild daffodils and white from the wood anemones, which blink like the stars on the raw green of the leaves.

While watching the wood one feels the unforgettable emotion of the mirrored sky on the ground, which bears the purple fog effect overwhelming everything around, along with the natural flower perfume.

The Hallerbos Wood has got the power of changing its clothes’ colours in just some weeks. This appears to be a natural miracle, which happens every spring for the past decades. The purple-blue phenomenon is alive for two-three weeks in April.

The Hallerbos Wood has recently been mentioned in the international media as a natural attraction. One can now easily see and meet people from everywhere in the world, who come to admire the Wood beauty. In addition to professional photographers, I also spotted painters with their tools and colours working to immortalise moments and the unusual natural light and its marvellous tones.

From one year to another the number of visitors increased significantly. This year it was difficult to find a parking place, so we turned around for about 30 minutes and we finally parked the car, far away from the Wood, somewhere in a field, next to some caws.

A number of volunteers warn the tourists to stay on the main Wood’s roads and not to touch the purple-blue carpet as the blue bells’ bulbs are very fragile. Once touched they die and will never bloom again.

 

More articles on Hallerbos:

La forêt bleu-violette à Hal en Belgique (FR)

Le miracle bleu-violet du Bois de Hal en Belgique (FR)

Hallerbos’s galaxy of windflower stars (EN)

Breathtaking purple-blue carpets of Halle’s Wood (EN)

Halle’s blue-purple emotion in Belgium (EN)

Hallerbos, a piece of the Belgian green heritage (EN)

Pădurea albastră-purpurie din Halle, Belgia (RO)

Miracolul violet-albăstrui al Pădurii din Halle, Belgia (RO)