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Villers Abbey

Villers Abbey

Photo: Abbaye de Villers-la-Ville asbl · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Villers-la-Ville, Belgium
Client / Owner
Gauthier de Marbais
Year
Completed 1267
Access
Tickets required
Style
—

Villers Abbey is a ruined Cistercian abbey in Villers-la-Ville in Walloon Brabant, Belgium. Twelve Cistercian monks and three lay brothers from Clairvaux founded it in 1146, on land granted by Gauthier de Marbais. Construction of the current site began in the early thirteenth century. The choir was finished by 1217, the crypt by 1240 and the refectory by 1267. The church took about 70 years to build.

Decline set in during the sixteenth century. Spanish tercios damaged the church and cloister in 1544, and they were partly restored in 1587. The abbey was abandoned in 1796 after the French Revolution.

The church is in ruins but keeps vaulting, arches and rose windows. The cloister, refectory, kitchens, dormitories and brewing house also survive. The Belgian state bought the site in 1893 and began conservation.

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