Boudelo Monastery
| Boudelo Cistercian Abbey | |
|---|---|
 former abbey church (today library) |
|
| location | Belgium East Flanders |
| Coordinates: | 51 ° 10 '54 " N , 3 ° 59' 24" E |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
590 |
| founding year | 1215 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
1797 |
| Mother monastery | Cambron Monastery |
|
Daughter monasteries |
no |
Boudelo Monastery (Baudeloo, derived from Balduins Lohe) is a former Cistercian monk abbey in Belgium . It is located in Stekene between Antwerp and Ghent in the Klein-Sinaai district in the province of East Flanders .
history
In 1197 the Benedictine monk Balduin van Boekel retired from St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent to a hermitage in Boudelo, which is near the important route from Ghent to Antwerp. A group of monks quickly formed around him. In 1200 count Baldwin IX. a document confirming that the monastery owned a mill and arable land and exempted it from tithes. In 1203 the Bishop of Tournai confirmed the monastery and in the same year it was presented by Pope Innocent III. under his protection. The monastery, which was soon elevated to the status of an abbey, joined the Cistercian order in 1215 and was soon subordinated to Cambron Monastery , a subsidiary of the Clairvaux Primary Abbey . The poor economic condition of the monastery only improved towards the end of the 13th century. The monastery was active in the poldering of the areas around the Scheldt . In 1381, 1382 and 1452 the abbey, which stood on the side of the Counts of Flanders, was devastated by the city of Ghent, but renovated in 1460. In the sixteenth century, the abbey suffered financially from the invasion of the sea and from difficulties in collecting debts, which were only resolved through the intervention of Philip the Fair . In 1570 lightning struck the monastery. In 1578, Ghent Calvinists expelled the monks from the monastery, the monastery buildings were sold and some of them demolished, while the monks first sought refuge in Cologne and in 1584, after Ghent was regained by the Calvinists, in the courtyard there (a second was in Hulst ) the St. Jacob's Church. The monastery in Klein-Sinaai continued to be used as a building yard. The settlement in Ghent, which was recognized as a monastery in 1602, became increasingly wealthy in the following years. The monastery church was completed by 1616, and other monastery buildings followed. The monastery was expanded further in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Boudelohof was built near the former abbey in 1660. After the conquest of the Austrian Netherlands by France in 1795, the monastery imposed a contribution of 800,000 pounds. After the monastery was unable to raise a second contribution, it was confiscated. In 1797 the convent had to leave the monastery, the church was initially used as a temple of speech and a theater, the monastery buildings as the library of the Scheldt department and as a school; part of the monastery building was demolished.
literature
- Yves Beaurain: Het klooster van Boudelo 1700 - 1800 , Licentiate thesis Univ. Gent 2000, also on the Internet at http://www.ethesis.net/boudelo/klooster_boudelo/boudelo_inhoud.htm (in Dutch).