Affligem Abbey, Benedictine monastery in Hekelgem, Belgium
Affligem Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Affligem, Flemish Brabant. Its long façade combines a brick wing with rows of rectangular windows, a stone central section with a round window above a red double door framed by columns, and a lower stone wing with large arched windows and white mullions. A slate roof with dormer windows and a small green cupola with a cross sits above, behind a low brick wall and trimmed hedge. The convent buildings were rebuilt from 1770 to plans by Laurent-Benoît Dewez.
Six knights founded a hermit community here on 28 June 1062, on land given by Count Palatine Hermann II of Lotharingia through his guardian Anno II, archbishop of Cologne. The first church, dedicated to Saint Peter, was built in 1083; the Benedictine Rule was adopted in 1085 and the abbey formally dedicated in 1086. Flemish troops burned it in 1580, and French revolutionary forces dissolved it in 1796. Monks returned in 1869/70 and a new church was built in 1880.
The abbey's name comes from the six knights who founded a hermit community here in 1062 after renouncing their violent lives. Bernard of Clairvaux visited in 1146 and, according to the abbey annals, greeted a statue of the Virgin with "Ave Maria"; it is said to have turned and replied "Salve Bernarde". The staff and chalice he left are kept at Dendermonde.
The abbey lies in Hekelgem, part of Affligem, about 19 km north-west of Brussels. The convent buildings of 1770 by Laurent-Benoît Dewez are grouped around two square courtyards, with the church's west facade as the central element of a long symmetrical composition. Look for the two risalites under triangular pediments.
Queen Adeliza of England, widow of Henry I, was buried in the abbey church in 1151 near the clockwork, as was her father Duke Godfrey I of Leuven, who died in 1139. The counts of Brabant had become the abbey's protectors in 1085/1086.
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