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Forest Abbey
View from the cour d'honneur (main courtyard)
Map
General information
TypeAbbey
Town or cityCity of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region
CountryBelgium
Coordinates50°48′38″N 4°19′00″E / 50.81056°N 4.31667°E / 50.81056; 4.31667

Forest Abbey (French: Abbaye de Forest) or Vorst Abbey (Dutch: Abdij van Vorst) was a Benedictine abbey located in the Brussels municipality of Forest, Belgium. It was founded in 1105 and existed for nearly 700 years, until its partial destruction by fire in 1764. It was abolished in 1796. Only the abbey's 18th-century outbuildings have been preserved. They are now owned by the municipality and serve as a cultural centre.

History

Forest Abbey, engraving by Lucas Vorsterman II, published in Sanderus, Chorographia Sacra Brabantiae (1659)

The abbots of Affligem Abbey, which had been the ecclesiastical owners of the parish since the Bishop of Cambrai ceded it to them in 1105, decided to build a priory for women in Forest, which would eventually become Forest Abbey.[1] The first prioress was named in 1239. Also in the 13th century, the Romanesque Church of St. Denis was rebuilt in the newer Gothic style. The neighbouring abbey church was rebuilt in the 15th century.

Relics of Saint Alena, whose cult was popular in the region, were formerly kept both in the parish church and in the abbey church, but since 1796 only in the parish church.[2]

Much of the abbey was destroyed by fire on 26 March 1764.[3] The abbey was suppressed on 8 October 1796 and sold the following year. The buildings that survived the dismantling are now owned by the Brussels municipality of Forest, and are used as a cultural centre for seminars, banquets and exhibitions. The abbey and the site were classified as a historic monument in 1994.

Abbesses

See also

References

  1. ^ Official website
  2. ^ Bart Fransen, "Recherches historiques / Historisch onderzoek", Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, 32 (2006-2008), pp. 95-101.
  3. ^ P. Leroy, "Domein van de abdij van Vorst", in Doorheen de nationale geschiedenis (State Archives in Belgium, Brussels, 1980), p. 207.
  4. ^ "Liste des Abbesses de la noble Abbaye de Forest", in La vie et les miracles de Ste. Alene, vierge et martyre (Brussels, 1783), 75-82.

External links

Categories