Val-Dieu Abbey

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Val-Dieu abbey

Val-Dieu abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the Berwinne valley in the present province of Liège, Belgium, near Aubel.

[edit] History

In 1216 a few monks from Hocht, near Maastricht, settled in the uninhabited valley which was part of the border between the duchy of Limburg and the county of Dalhem; they called their settlement Vallis Dei.

The abbey's original church was destroyed in 1287 during the succession war involving the duchy of Limburg. The rebuilt churches would be razed three more times: in 1574 during the Eighty Years' War, in 1683 by the armies of Louis XIV, and the last time during the French Revolution.

After the French Revolution, the abbey was left empty for years; only in 1844 it became inhabited again by the last living monk from the pre-revolution era together with four monks of the Bornem abbey.

The abbey's golden years were during the jurisdiction of abbot Jean Dubois, from 1711 until 1749. The last three monks left the abbey in 2001, and since 1 January 2002 it is inhabited by a few lay families headed by rector Jean-Pierre Schenkelaars, under supervision of the regional clerical authorities and associated with the Cistercian order. Since 1997 the abbey's farm houses the Brasserie de l'Abbaye du Val-Dieu, where the abbey brews a recognized abbey beer following the century old tradition of the Val-Dieu monks.