Montenau

Montenau
	Montenau
	Montenau
State :	Belgium
Region :	Wallonia
Province :	Liege
District :	Verviers
Coordinates :	50 ° 22 ′ N , 6 ° 7 ′ E Coordinates: 50 ° 22 ′ N , 6 ° 7 ′ E
Residents:	327 pop.

Montenau is a village in the Belgian Eifel with 327 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2013), which belongs to the municipality of Amel in the German-speaking Community . Montenau forms a double village together with the immediately adjacent Iveldingen . Montenau and Iveldingen share a school, a church that was built in Iveldingen in 1983, and a chapel for the dead, which stands on the border between the two villages and is a relic of the old parish church, which was demolished in 1987.

geography

The Amel near Montenau

View from Iveldingen to Montenau to the death chapel of the double village, which is located on the border

Montenau is located in the Amel Valley in the far west of the municipality of Amel on the edge of the Wolfsbusch, a forest area of over 1000 hectares. Neighboring towns are Ondenval in the north, Iveldingen in the northeast, Deidenberg in the southeast and Born in the south.

The main tree species in the Wolfsbusch are conifers. Deciduous trees only take up about 1/5 of the area. The name Wolfsbusch indicates the earlier presence of the wolf in the Eifel- Ardennes forests, the last of which were shot in the 19th century. There are noticeably many large stones in the Wolfsbusch. In earlier centuries they were made into millstones. One copy has been converted into a fountain in the neighboring Ondenval on the church square.

St. Raphael Monastery

The monastery of St. Raphael is located on the north-western edge of the village . It was built in 1908 as the villa of the Antwerp merchant Karl Gottfried Grisar. In 1928 the Order of Steyler bought the complex for a monastery settlement. In 1938 it was expanded as a recreation house for missionaries, and from 1940 to 1945 the monastery was used as a German Wehrmacht hospital. Afterwards, the St. Vith (BS) Episcopal School, which was destroyed in the war, found temporary home.

The monastery community still had seven members in 2014: four religious of the Steyler missionaries and three sisters. They performed their services largely within the community and to a limited extent also made themselves available to people outside the monastery. They worked closely with the St. Raphael Abbey Educational Center. In the monastery there were four guest rooms available for people who are looking for a time of silence and reflection. The guests could live in the monastery for a while and participate in the rhythm of life and prayer of the community. In August 2018 the monastery was given up.

economy

Montenauer ham smokehouse with its specialty Ardennes ham .

Web links

Commons : Montenau - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

[1] Population figures of the Amel community

[2] Presentation of the St. Raphael Monastery

[3] BRF: Farewell to the monastery: Order of Steyler withdraws from Montenau