A status quaestionis of the archaeological research
into Cistercian abbeys in Belgium
(Marc Brion)
In 1999 an inventory of all Belgian archaeological research in Cistercian abbeys
was carried out. Apart from the physical inventory itself, the principal aims of this
project were to gather as much information as possible on Belgian research in
Cistercian contexts, and also to examine the importance of archaeology in our
knowledge of those abbeys.
The reconstruction of the ground plan of an abbey was often one of the priorities
in the elder research projects. A ground plan would include the church, cloister,
the buildings and annexe structures like the mill, the abbot’s house, the
guesthouse. Where the surface structures were demolished we are thrown on the
mercy of historical or archaeological sources.
During the French revolution, due to their confiscation as national property, most
of the abbeys were described and a ground plan was made by the French
government. This kind of source is invaluable but obviously shows only the
situation of the abbey at the end of the eighteenth century.
Catastrophes, adaptation to new architectural tendencies, enlargements or
extensions induce change in the ground plans of the original buildings. In addition
to this, the use and interpretation of those ground plans needs also a certain
caution. They can be inexact or even wrong. In this case archaeology is useful to
verify this or to find out the extent of earlier building phases. One example of this
is the research carried out on the Groeninge abbey of Kortrijk.
The eighteenth century plan, made at the moment of the public sale of the
monastery by the French authorities was compared with the results of the
excavation. With the exception of some small details the eighteenth century plan
and the archaeological plan were quite similar.
Of course research can not be reduced to a reconstruction of the ground plan.
Many rebuilding phases did leave their mark. They reveal a living history from the
earliest until the last phases. An abbey could be a permanent building site from
the moment of its inception.
The results of the archaeological research in relation to the building and
rebuilding reveal some important architectural tendencies throughout the
Cistercian history in Belgium.
The eleventh, twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century are characterised
by a religious revival with a special interest from the nobility, and followed by a
large part of the population. Thanks to the gifts of grounds and tithes the
religious communities reached a high level of prosperity rather quickly after their
foundation. The number of monks and lay brothers became more and more
important and as the abbeys had greater resources they could enlarge their
buildings. The church, chapter-house, and the refectory are commonly modified.
For example, in 1254, 10 years after its foundation, the church of the Sint-
Bernardus abbey of Hemiksem was rebuilt and in 1313 it was replaced once
again by an even more important church. To insure the permanency of the cult it
was rebuilt beside the former church. This served the joint purpose of keeping a
place of worship open as the new building works were going on.
The fourteenth and fifteenth century is for many abbeys a golden age. The,
formerly modest, abbey becomes more and more powerful and rich. The
increasing importance and wealth has to be reflected on the exterior. This in
combination with great technical innovations and a new architectural style lead
to a radical change.
We noticed that the cloister, spiritual centre of the abbey, in some cases will be
enlarged in the fourteenth and fifteenth century. This enlargement will mostly be
at the expense of the lay brothers passage and eventually also of a part of the
buildings at west of the cloister.
The church can be enlarged by addition of aisles and a transept, and also by the
extension of the western side and the choir. There is a tendency to replace the
plain choir by an absis formed choir. An important reintroduction is the vaulted
roof instead of the plain wooden roofs. These vaulted roofs mean that the load
bearing walls have to be reinforced. The construction of wall supports, or
buttresses, is often directly related to these roof modifications. We have seen
some examples of the expansion of Cistercian communities, but on the other
hand the contrary is also possible. The number of the monks decreased so much
during the sixteenth century in the abbey of Ten Duinen that they moved to the
former abbots quarter. The living quarters around the cloister were totally given
up.
The sixteenth century is a dark period into the abbey history, they suffered under
religious wars. Many abbeys are plundered and destroyed by itinerant armies and
revolting bands. In response to this century of turmoil and under the influence of
the contra-reformation the seventeenth century saw an immense building
programme. In almost all monasteries we can determine important renovations
or complete rebuilding corresponding to that period.
A novelty was that the people living in the surroundings often obtained the right
to celebrate the mass in the abbey church. This implies certain modifications to
avoid direct contact between the people and the monks, especially in the female
abbeys. In the abbey of Rotselaar is an example of the creation of a little chapel
in the north transept, separated from the church by a small wall.
A very important period which left its mark on the architectural history of the
abbey was the eighteenth century. The buildings are modernised and made to
correspond to the reigning fashion with special attention given to the abbots’
quarter. In some cases the house of the abbot became a real palace. This growing
luxury will be abruptly halted by the French revolution when many abbeys were
confiscated and sold.
During the earliest phases of the abbeys the written sources are very limited and
in some cases even false. We know little, for example, how the site for the
building was chosen. In the past it was thought that Cistercian communities were
always established on waste lands and deserted locations. This theory is now a
little dated. Examples of Belgian excavations have revealed the prior occupation
of several sites before the arrival of the Cistercians. Under the abbey church of
Orval the archaeologists found the remains of a parish church. In another
example, the abbey of Zwijveke was built on infertile and swampy land. The living
conditions became so difficult that they had to move to neighbouring lands.
These lands were already occupied by the parish of Zwijveke. This didn’t present
a problem to the abbey, the houses were razed and the occupants were given the
old abbey buildings in exchange.
In almost all of the cases where abbeys were situated near wet land we have
observed networks of drains and huge banked-up layers. The consecution of
those layers suspects that this measure was most off the time inefficient to lute
against the uprising groundwater level. We have found such banked-up layers in
Aulne, Clairefontaine, Orval, Ten Duinen and Villers.
Water was the cause of many problems but also indispensable. Too much water
was catastrophic but too little water could be as well. The abbeys were always
erected near a water course. Before the commencement of construction the
abbey site was modified and the watercourse adapted in such a way that the
community could take full advantage of the water system. A main canal
conducted the water there where it was needed: the watermill, the hospital, the
kitchen, the lavatory, the latrines etc, secondary canals were also connected to
this main source. Some abbeys like Clairefontaine and Paix-Dieu had an extra
water source or water well.
Once the site was made suitable and the necessary measures were taken to
optimise the living circumstances, the real construction of the monastery could
begin. The archaeological research has revealed a lot of information about the
foundations. For the oldest periods most of the time natural stone foundations
have been found. Material re-use in foundation was very customary. In the ground
works of the Groeninge abbey, built in the city centre of Kortrijk, archaeologists
found stones and decorative elements supplied from the former abbey at the
exterior of the town.
About the abbeys built in wetlands, there are several solutions to the problems
such land presents to construction. In the abbeys of Groeninge, Boudeloo, Sint-
Bernardus and Ten Duinen the foundations were dug large and deep. Another
method could be the construction of spare arches, examples of which survive in
the abbeys of Nazareth and Villers. In the excavations of the abbeys of
Maagdendale and Herkenrode, foundations supported by wooden piles or a
wicker-work of branches and planks could be seen.
Archaeological research forms only one part of a much larger field of
investigation techniques. For this reason a sound knowledge of the written and
iconographical sources, as well as the local architectural, political and landscape
history will be indispensable to understand the complex development of an
abbey.
In the meanwhile the archaeological research is still going on in some Belgian
Cistercian abbeys. They will reveal us certainly much more important information
into the future.
ANNAERT, R., De kerk van de Cisterciënzer Sint-Bernardusabdij te Hemiksem (prov. Antwerpen), in
Archeologie in Vlaanderen, 2, Asse - Zellik, 1992, 265 - 278.
BOLLY, J.-J., BUXANT, P., JAVAUX, J.-L., MARCHAL, M., Les abbayes de femmes, in TOUSSAINT, J.
(red.), Les cisterciens en Namurois. XIIIe-Xxe siècle, Namur, 1998, 150 - 180.
BOULEZ, V., ROELANDT, D., THIRION, E., L’ancienne abbaye cistercienne de la Paix-Dieu à Amay
(Lg.), in Archaeologia Mediaevalis, 22, Gent, 1999, 11 - 12.
BOULMONT, G., L’abbaye d’Aulne ou origines, splendeurs, épreuves et ruines de la ‘perle
monastique’ d’entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, Namur, 1897.
BOURGEOIS, F., Villers-devant-Orval: abbaye d’Orval, in Archeologie, 2, 1963, 62.
BRION, M., Cisterciënzer-archeologie in België, unpublished dissertation, Gent, 1999.
CAES, W., Archeologische site Vrouwenpark te Rotselaar. Beschrijving van de belangrijkste
structurele resten uit de eerste opgravingscampagne (1997), in Haachts Oudheid- en
Geschiedkundig Tijdschrift, 3-4, Haacht, 1997, 287 - 300.
COOMANS, T., La ruelle des convers de l’abbaye de Villers, in Archaeologia Mediaevalis, 18, Namur,
1995 (a), 36 - 37.
COOMANS, T., Le cloître de l’abbaye cistercienne, in Chronique de l’archéologie Wallonne, 3, 1995
(b), 12 - 13.
COOMANS, T., Bilan des connaissances archéologiques et architecturales. Problématiques et
perspectives, in Villers, une abbaye revisitée. Actes du colloque, 10 - 11 avril 1996, Villers-la-Ville,
1996, 17 - 36.
DE BELIE, A., De Boudelo-abdij, archeologisch onderzocht, Sint-Niklaas, 1997.
DE MEULEMEESTER, J., DEWILDE, M., De abtswoning van de Duinenabdij te Koksijde (W.Vl.), in
Archaeologia Mediaevalis, 12, Namur, 1989 (a), 42 - 43.
DE MEULEMEESTER, J., L’abbaye noble de Clairefontaine, l’approche archéologique (Lux.), in
Archaeologia Mediaevalis, 22, Gent, 1999, 22 - 26.
DESPRIET, P., De Kortrijkse Groeningeabij, een archeologische en historische studie, in
Archeologische en Historische Monografieën van Zuid-West-Vlaanderen, 28, Kortrijk, 1993.
DEWILDE, M., DE MEULEMEESTER, J., Van abtswoning tot monnikenverblijf een bouwhistorische en
archeologische benadering van de abtswoning van O.L.V. Ten Duinenabdij te Koksijde, in De Duinen,
21, Koksijde, 1991, 7 - 49.
GREGOIRE, C., Contribution à l’histoire de l’abbaye d’Orval, L’ancien cloître, historique de son
évolution. Fouilles de 1961 - 1962, in Pays Gaumais, 24 - 25, Virton, 1963 - 1964, 159 - 276.
MOORHOUSE, S., Pottery and glass in the medieval monastery, in GILCHRIST, R., MYTUM, H. (red.),
Advances in Monastic Archaeology, BAR British Series 227, 1993, 127-143.
ROELANDT, D., Een studie in de 600 jaar oude onderaardse gangen van de Cisterciënzer-Abdij van
Paix Dieu, in Science Explorers-News, 41, 1998, 19 - 31.
STROOBANTS, A., PEE, L. (red.), De Abdij van Zwijveke, vanaf haar ontstaan tot haar restauratie,
1223 - 1981, Tentoonstellingscataloog, Dendermonde, 1981.
TIRI, W., Abdij Roosendael, ‘na Mechelen de voornaamste plaats van de omgeving’,
(werkingsverslag), Mechelen, 1997.
ILLUSTRATIONS
ILL 1
Twenty five of the sixty eight Cistercian abbeys in Belgium have been the subject
of an archaeological investigation. The projects correlated by the inventory
consider simple surveys as well as the more elaborate research. The size of the
spots corresponds with the size and importance of the excavation.
ILL 2
The eighteenth century plan of the Groeninge abbey in Kortrijk, made at the
moment of it's confiscation and public sale by the French authorities during the
French Revolution. (DESPRIET 1993, 29)
ILL 3
Groundplan of the church of the Sint-Bernardus abbey of Hemiksem. (ANNAERT
1992, 265)
and/or ILL 3bis
The Sint-Bernardus abbey of Hemiksem.
ILL 4
In red, the enlargement of the cloister and the church in the abbeys of 1) Villers
2)Aulne and 3)Orval.
ILL 5
Archeaological research in the abbots’ quarter of the Roosendael abbey of Sint-
Katelijne-Waver. (TIRI 1997, 8)
ILL 6 or ILL 6bis
The abbey of Orval.
ILL 7
Research of the watersystem in the abbey of Paix-Dieu (Amay). (ROELANDT, D.)
