This is Belgium 2: Orval Abbey: in and through
This is my second post about beautiful spots in my country, Belgium.
Today I'm taking you to Orval Abbey.
About 165 million years ago, this town was not land, but sea. At the bottom of the sea was then formed the ochre stone, which completed a church in 1124. In 1132, the monks were given a piece of land to be cultivated. This became the beginning of a community that was slowly expanding.
Over the years, the abbey was regularly destroyed, including by wars with France and Spain. A violent fire in 1252 more or less swept the fortress off the map. In 1796, they gave up and left the ruins behind.
Those ruins are still there, inside the walls of the current abbey. It wasn't until the 1900s that a new, imposing abbey was built around the ruins, still inhabited by Cistercian monks to this day. It is one of the five official remaining Trappist monasteries in Belgium.
