Vlierbeek Abbey, Benedictine abbey in Kessel-Lo, Belgium

Vlierbeek Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Kessel-Lo near Leuven featuring a monumental sandstone church built in neoclassical style. The complex includes monastic buildings, gardens, and a functioning parish church that welcomes visitors to explore its restored spaces.

Godfrey I of Louvain gave the land on the Vlierbeek to Affligem Abbey two years before 1127, when the monks founded a priory there; it became an abbey in 1163 or 1165. Troops of William of Orange burned it in 1572, and rebuilding ran from 1642 to about 1730 and again from 1776 to 1796 under Laurent-Benoît Dewez. The French suppressed the abbey in 1796 and sold the buildings in 1798; the last monk died in 1838.

The abbey church, designed by Laurent-Benoît Dewez and built from 1776 to 1783, is 62 m long and 35 m wide, with a 24 m high choir and an octagonal central dome. Mass is still celebrated there every weekend, and outside services the church is open to visitors. The churchyard holds the graves of professors Paul Alberdingk-Thijm, Emiel Vliebergh and Pieter-Jozef Sencie and student leader Jef Vanden Eynde.

The abbey church is open to visitors outside Mass, which is celebrated every weekend. The two halls of the Nieuw Abtskwartier and the cloister gallery open only on special occasions; the other buildings are private. A tavern operates on site, and the churchyard holds graves of professors Paul Alberdingk-Thijm, Emiel Vliebergh and Pieter-Jozef Sencie and student leader Jef Vanden Eynde.

The abbey church, designed by Laurent-Benoît Dewez and built from 1776 to 1783, is 62 metres long and 35 metres wide, with a choir 24 metres high. Its central part is octagonal and crowned by a cupola, and the openings take geometric forms such as a semi-circle or a trapezium.