Kartuizerklooster Bethlehem, Carthusian monastery in Roermond, Netherlands.
The Kartuizerklooster Bethlehem was a contemplative monastery complex featuring cloisters, chapels, and monastic cells where Carthusian monks dedicated their lives to prayer, manuscript copying, and crafting rosaries from bone materials.
Founded in 1376 by monks from Cologne, the monastery survived two major fires in 1554 and 1665, witnessed the martyrdom of twelve Carthusians in 1572, and was dissolved in 1783 under Emperor Joseph II's religious reforms.
The monastery belonged to the strict Carthusian Order, known for their contemplative lifestyle and individual hermitage cells, while housing notable theologians like Dionysius the Carthusian and preserving religious manuscripts and artifacts.
Located at the corner of Swalmerstraat and Bethlehemstraat, visitors can explore the surviving Carolus Chapel, which contains 18th-century architectural elements, religious relics, and serves as a designated national monument site.
Archaeological excavations in 2006 uncovered five monastic cells and evidence of the monks' fish-only diet, while the complex once produced bone rosary beads and housed relics of the Roermond Martyrs.
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