Hemiksem Monastery

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Hemiksem Cistercian Abbey
Hemiksem Monastery
Hemiksem Monastery
location BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Antwerp Province
Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '53 "  N , 4 ° 19' 49"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '53 "  N , 4 ° 19' 49"  E
Serial number
according to Janauschek 		627
Patronage St. Bernard of Clairvaux
founding year 1243
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1797
Mother monastery Villers-la-Ville monastery
Primary Abbey Clairvaux Monastery

Daughter monasteries

no

Dom Gerardus Rubens, Dept.

Hemiksem Monastery (Latin: Abbatia Sancti Bernardi ad Scaldim ; Flemish: Sint Bernardusabdij ) is a former Cistercian monk abbey in Belgium , in the municipality of Hemiksem in the province of Antwerp .

history

The abbey, founded in Lier in 1243 but moved to Hemiksem near Antwerp as early as 1246 , was a subsidiary of the Villers-la-Ville monastery from the filiation of the Clairvaux primary abbey . It owes its foundation mainly to the dukes Henry I and Henry II of Brabant. When the diocese of Antwerp was founded in 1559, it fell into the future and the bishop also became abbot . It was temporarily abandoned during the iconoclasm in 1578. In 1649 it was separated from the diocese again. Most of it burned down in 1672. In the French Revolution in 1797 the monastery was closed. The remaining monks bought the Bornem monastery in 1836 , which still exists today as a Cistercian monastery.

Abbots

see List of Abbots of Hemiksem

Plant and buildings

The two preserved Gothic niches of the former choir

The existing buildings date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The west facade is made of brick and sandstone. The window reveals on the first floor have a cockscomb motif. The central tower, crowned by a domed rotunda , rises considerably above the building. The Gothic abbey church was demolished in the 19th century. It was in the north of the enclosure. The nave had three aisles and eight bays. Only two Gothic pointed arch niches have survived in the southern choir wall, which testify to the high art-historical importance of the abandoned abbey church.

Protected since 1973, the monastery buildings were converted into a sailors' home after the French Revolution and later into a prison, a warehouse for collaborators and a military camp. In 1988, the community took over the building that now houses administrative facilities and a museum.

literature

  • Ursmer Berlière: Art. Ordre de Cîteaux. Abbaye de Saint-Bernard sur l'Escaut à Hemiksem . In: Léon-Ernest Halkin and others (eds.): Monasticon Belge . Part 8: Province d'Anvers , edited by Ursmer Berlière. Abbaye de Maredsous, Maredsous / Center National de Recherches d'Histoire Religieuse, Lüttich 1992, Volume 1, pp. 31-79.
  • Michiel Heirman, Linda Van Santvoort: Le guide de l'architecture en Belgique . Éditions Racine, Brussels 2000, ISBN 2-87386-236-X , pp. 298-299.
  • Marc Van de Cruys, Marc Cheron: Heraldiek van Abdijen en Kloosters , Volume 2: St. Bernardus aan de Schelde . Homunculus, Wijnegem 2003, 2nd revised edition 2018.

Web links

Commons : Hemiksem Monastery  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Ursmer Berlière: Art. Ordre de Cîteaux. Abbaye de Saint-Bernard sur l'Escaut à Hemiksem . In: Léon-Ernest Halkin and others (eds.): Monasticon Belge . Part 8: Province d'Anvers . Abbaye de Maredsous, Maredsous / Center National de Recherches d'Histoire Religieuse, Lüttich 1992, Volume 1, pp. 31–79, here p. 78.