The name ‘Hazegras’ refers to the salt marshes on the left bank of the Zwin. They formed the stage for numerous military tussles and after the land was reclaimed, it was the site of several forts going back to the 16th century. The Isabellafort – that was actually a fortified lock – was built in the 17th century alongside the construction of the Line of Fontaine and later revised due to the arrival of a new and larger lock to the north of the fort. This was destroyed during the War of the Spanish Succession by a strategic inundation, after which the fort lost its importance. After a new land reclamation in the 18th century, Fort Hazegras was constructed to defend the Hazegrassluis (1784) which still survives today. During the Belgian Revolt (1830), there was a military presence here too when the Dutch were defeated. Thereafter the fort was renamed Leopoldfort. In the First World War, the Germans set up part of their ‘Hollandstellung’ here, a bunker line aimed at preventing an Allied landing on the Dutch coast.
