Val-Dieu Abbey
Val-Dieu Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Wallonia in the Berwinne valley near Aubel in the Pays de Herve (province of Liège, Belgium).
History
In 1216 a small number of monks from Hocht Abbey in Lanaken, near Maastricht, settled in the uninhabited valley which formed the border between the Duchy of Limburg and the county of Dalhem; they called their settlement Vallis Dei (French: Val-Dieu; Valley of God).[1]
The abbey's original church was destroyed in 1287 during the
The remaining buildings were left empty until 1844, when they were resettled by the last living monk of Val-Dieu from the time before the Revolution, together with four monks from Bornem Abbey.[1]
The abbey was closed again in 2001, when the last three monks left. Since 1 January 2002 a small
Brewery
In 1997 the
References
- ^ a b Thomas Lambiet: Val-Dieu. Une abbaye, une histoire, une architecture. Ed. Jean Levaux. Battice, 1985
- ^ L’église de l’abbaye cistercienne Notre-Dame du Val-Dieu
- ISBN 978-2-87522-164-3)
- ^ Val-Dieu brewery
- ^ De Tijd, Vallei van kaas en siroop, 24 December 2005
Further reading
- Jean-Simon Renier: Histoire de l'abbaye de Val-Dieu, Verviers, 1865
- Joseph-Marie Canivez: L'ordre de Citeaux en Belgique, Abbaye de Scourmont, Forges-lez-Chimay, 1926
- Dom Antoine Vandekerckhove: Histoire de l'abbaye du Val-Dieu: à travers les siècles, 1215-1954. Dison (Belgique), Editions J.-J. Jespers-Grégoire, 1955
- Jérôme Eeckhout: L’église de l’abbaye cistercienne Notre-Dame du Val-Dieu. Mémoire en Histoire de l’Art et Archéologie, Faculté de Philosophie & Lettre, ULg 1998-1999