Herne Charterhouse, Medieval Carthusian monastery in Herne, Belgium.
Herne Charterhouse, canonically La Chapelle, was founded in 1314 near a Marian pilgrimage chapel. Its layout followed Carthusian rules: a small cloister with prior's lodging, kitchen and refectory, and a large cloister surrounded by monks' cells. A wall enclosed the whole domain, entered through a gatehouse with separate quarters for women and men. The surviving brick facade on a grey stone base has a central arched doorway with a fanlight and tall white-framed windows.
The monastery was founded in 1314 and served as an active Carthusian center for nearly 500 years. It was closed and dissolved in 1783 during a wave of religious institution suppressions across the region.
The monastery took its canonical name, Domus Capellae or Chartreuse de la Chapelle, from a Marian pilgrimage chapel that already stood on the site. Margaret of York, wife of Charles the Bold, visited her confessor, prior Laurent Muschezeele, here, and after her death in 1503 her heart was buried at Herne while her entrails went to Scheut. The painter Rogier van der Weyden donated to the house, where his son Corneille became a monk.
The former charterhouse stood within a walled domain entered through a gatehouse that held the women's guest quarters, with the men's guest quarters further on; the monastic church was reserved for the monks, while parishioners heard Mass in the old church. The farm Hof te Schiebeek in Herne also belonged to the monastery. The surviving remains are protected as a monument within a protected village setting.
The monastery's history survives largely through chronicles by three of its monks: Arnold Beeltsens, who entered in 1456 and wrote plainly up to 1490; the humanist Jean Ammonius, suspected of Lutheran sympathies, who began his in 1529; and Guillaume-Bruno Pédé, later prior of Bois-Saint-Martin.
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