| Saint Peter's Abbey | |
|---|---|
Sint-Pietersabdij | |
 Saint Peter's Abbey | |
  Ghent Location of Ghent in Belgium | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Medieval Baroque |
| Address | Sint-Pietersplein 9 |
| Town or city | Ghent |
| Country | Belgium |
| Coordinates | 51°2′31.7″N3°43′36.1″E / 51.042139°N 3.726694°E |
| Owner | Historische Huizen Gent ("Historic Houses Ghent") |
| Website | |
| historischehuizen | |
Saint Peter's Abbey (Dutch : Sint-Pietersabdij) is a former Benedictine abbey in Ghent, Belgium, now a museum and exhibition centre.
Saint Peter's was founded in the late 7th century by Amandus, a missionary sent by the Frankish kings to Christianize the pagan inhabitants of the region, who founded two monasteries in the area, St. Bavo's, and Saint Peter's on the Blandijnberg. [1] During the winter of 879-80, the abbey was raided and plundered by the Normans, [2] and it remained relatively poor until the 10th century when the abbey became the privileged burial ground of the rulers of the County of Flanders.
In particular, Count Arnulf I considerably enriched the abbey with donations of property (some of which he or his father had usurped) and relics. [3] So did further donations by Elthruda, the niece of King Alfred, who donated in 918, St. Mary's Church in Lewisham, Greenwich [4] [5] and by Arnulf's cousin King Edgar of England. Count Arnulf I also replaced the canons with Benedictine monks shortly before 941. [3] By the second half of the century it was the wealthiest abbey in Flanders, and the reputation of the abbey school extended far beyond the town.
In 984, Gerbert of Aurillac, director of the cathedral school of Reims, (later Pope Sylvester II) inquired whether students from Reims could be admitted to Saint Peter's, and its renown as a centre of artes liberales continued into the 11th century. Saint Peter's, through its ownership of large tracts of land, also played a pioneering role in cultivation during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, transforming forests, moors and marshes into farmland. In the fifteenth century a large scale programme of construction created the abbey library and scriptorium, enlarged the refectory, and the abbey church and other buildings were considerably beautified. [1]
Saint Peter's first decline began following the Revolt of Ghent in 1539, and by the 1560s the Low Countries were plunged in a religious crisis that resulted in an attack by iconoclasts in 1566 in which the abbey church was wrecked, the library looted, and other buildings badly damaged. The infirmary was pressed into service as a temporary home for the monks and the refectory used as a place of worship. However opposition continued and in 1578 the abbot and monks were forced to flee to Douai. The abbey buildings were sold at public auction and were partly demolished, the materials being used to construct the city walls. The abbey finally came back into the hands of the church in 1584, and it was eventually rebuilt, with a new abbey church, begun in 1629, in the Baroque style, as well as several other new builds and refurbishments. During the 18th century, the abbey was once again flourishing, as new buildings were constructed and older ones enlarged, including the conversion of the old dormitory into a library with more than ten thousand books. [1]
However, the end was not far off, first with the Brabant Revolution of 1789–90, then the French invasion of 1793. Finally, on 1 September 1796, the Directory abolished all religious institutions. In 1798 the library was emptied and eventually taken to the University of Ghent. From 1798 the abbey church was used as a museum, but was returned to the ownership of the church in 1801 and renamed Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Sint-Pieterskerk ("Our Lady of Saint Peter's Church"). In 1810, the rest of the abbey became the property of the city of Ghent, and was partially demolished for the construction of a military barracks, which remained on the site until 1948. [1]
Around 1950 the city launched a programme of restoration, which is still ongoing, which began with the cloister and chapter house, then the west wing, including the old refectory and kitchens. Work on the wine cellars and attics was completed in the 1970s, and in 1982 work on the abbey gardens was completed, and in 1986 the terrace. In the 1990s restoration of the refectory wing began. [6]
The abbey is now used as a museum and exhibition centre, which in 2000 housed a major exhibition as part of the Year of Emperor Charles, and in October 2001 hosted the 88th meeting of the European Council. [6] [7]
Isabella of Austria was buried at St. Peter's from her death in 1526 until 1883, when her remains were transferred to Odense Cathedral to lay alongside her husband Christian II of Denmark. [8] Also transferred in 1883 were the remains of her son John, who died in 1532. [8]
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
Baldwin II was the second margrave of Flanders, ruling from 879 to 918. He was nicknamed the Bald (Calvus) after his maternal grandfather, Emperor Charles the Bald.
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St. Andrew's Abbey, Bruges was a Benedictine abbey in Sint-Andries, Bruges, Belgium, which was destroyed in the French Revolution. Its modern successor St. Andrew's Abbey, Zevenkerken, founded in 1899–1900, is a Benedictine abbey of the Congregation of the Annunciation.
The Blandijnberg is a 29m high hill in the city center of Ghent in East Flanders, Belgium.
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Drongen Abbey, or the Old Abbey, Drongen, is a monastic complex on the River Leie in Drongen, a part of the city of Ghent in East Flanders, Belgium.
Ename is a Belgian village in the Flemish province of East Flanders. It stands on the right side of the river Scheldt and it is part of the municipality of Oudenaarde. The territory was inhabited during Prehistoric and Roman times, and became a trade settlement during the 10th century. From the 11th century it was part of the domain of the Benedictine abbey of Saint Salvator, until its 1795 dissolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution. The remains of the Saint Salvator abbey are today part of a major heritage project in Flanders, established by the Province of East-Flanders. The Provincial Archaeological Museum of Ename displays the major finds that have been excavated on the abbey site. Today the village of Ename hosts the Museumnacht in July and the Feeste t' Ename with the traditional horse market that has been held for centuries during the celebrations of the patron hallow Saint Laurentius, on the 10th of August.
The Genealogia comitum Flandrensium, also called the Genealogia Bertiniana, is a short text containing a genealogy of the counts of Flanders. It exists today in three versions, all based on an archetype produced probably at Saint Peter's Abbey in Ghent shortly after the death of Count Baldwin V in 1067. The three versions are all identical up to the 1067, thereafter they diverge. The first version, 204 words in length, continues the genealogy to the death of Robert II (1111); the second, 243 words, to that of Baldwin VII (1119); and the third, 337 words, to that of Theoderic (1168). The complete, 337-word text with variants was edited by Ludwig Bethmann and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. It was published under the title Genealogia comitum Flandriae Bertiniana because Bethmann mistakenly believed it to originate in the Abbey of Saint-Bertin.
Arnulfof Valenciennes, was a 10th and 11th century count and perhaps sometimes a margrave, who was lord of the fort of Valenciennes, which was at that time on the frontier with France, on the river Scheldt. It was part of the pagus of Hainaut, in Lower Lotharingia, within the Holy Roman Empire.
Anselm of Ribemont was a Frankish noblemen from Flanders and a participant in the First Crusade. His letters to archbishop Manasses II of Reims are key pieces of eyewitness accounts to the First Crusade.
Hasnon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery, originally founded in the 7th century in Hasnon, near Saint-Amand-les-Eaux and Valenciennes in the department of Nord in France. It was reopened in 1065 as a Benedictine abbey under the instruction of Malbod, abbot of St. Amand. Baldwin VI of Flanders built a church nearby which was consecrated in 1070 and called St. Peter's of Hasnon. The abbey was reformed once again in the 15th century under Laurent d'Ivoire, abbot of Hasnon. During the French Revolution the structures forming the abbey were destroyed.
