Abadia de Stavelot

Stavelot Abbey was a former Benedictine monastery in Stavelot, in the province of Liege (Walloon Region in Belgium). Founded in 651, the monastery was associated with that of Malmedy (they are often called 'double monastery’).

History

The abbey was founded in 651 by Saint Remacle. In 685 in the first abbey church was built by Father Goduin, dedicated to Saints Martin, Peter and Paul. ‘Remacle’ holy relics are preserved there.

In December 881 the abbey suffered the invasions of the Normans. The monks fled with their treasures and relics. Followed by a further invasion of the Normans in 883, the abbot Odilo proceeded to rebuild the ruined abbey.

The abbots of Stavelot catalogs cited in the last years of the ninth century, in 891 and 895, an abbot-named count Liutfrid.

Regnier I was with the abbey until his death in 915; he was succeeded by Evrard.

Gislebert then took over from his father and retained the abbey until about 939. The Duke Conrad, Duke of Lorraine got the same benefit, but we know he was disgraced in 953

The Counts and abbots of this first period are not necessarily the immediate leaders of the territory; but when they disappeared, that is to say in the middle of the tenth century, it was generally the earls who exercised the power on ecclesiastical institutions and their holdings. The first of these earls of Stavelot are members of the said family Luxembourg (Siegfried) descendants of Luxembourg.

1021: Advent of the abbot Poppo. Great builder, Poppo will build an imposing abbey church of over one hundred meters long. This new church was consecrated June 5, 1040 in the presence of the German Emperor Henry III. Poppo died in 1048.

In 1098, Wibald was born in the hamlet of Chevrouheid, near Stavelot. Elected prince-abbot in 1130, he played a key international-level role in the religious life of the region and the abbeys. In 1138, he granted permission for the castle to be built in Logne, first mentioned in an 862 abbey charter.

In the 12th to 15th centuries, however, the abbacy experienced a slow decline. In the 14th and 15th centuries, several Imperial edicts afforded the protection of the counts of Luxembourg, firstly under Emperor Charles 1V.

Early Modern Age

In 1509, William of Manderscheild organised a procession to induce the recalcitrant county of Logne, a fief of the abbey, to submit to his jurisdiction. In 1521, after the castle in Logne had been dismantled, William added "Count of Logne" to the abbots' titles, with the county representing most of the western portion of the principality's territory.

The abbey church served as a monastic church and as a church of pilgrimage until the French Revolution. Its imposing gatehouse tower was rebuilt in 1534; its ground floor is all that remains, though the abbey church has been excavated and its layout is shown on the ground.

Malmedy began to flourish particularly in the 16th century with the development of a tannery; in 1544 there were only 216 houses with a thousand inhabitants, but that tripled by 1635.

After the death of abbot Christopher of Manderscheid, there was a series of absent abbots, including Maximilian Henry of Bavaria (who was also bishop of Liège and of Hildesheim), who reformed the abbey in 1656.

Despite the abbacy's neutrality and the protection of the prince-abbots, the territory was invaded at least 50 times by troops passing through, whose depredations had disastrous consequences for the population, including the 4 October 1689 razing of both Stavelot and Malmedy on the orders of Nicolas Catinat, general to Louis XIV of France, during the Nine Years' War.  In Stavelot, the entire town, including over 360 houses, was destroyed, leaving just the abbey and its farmyard standing.

Some 600 out of the 660 houses of the town were destroyed and it took more than a century to completely rebuild Malmedy. Malmedy's 1601 city walls had previously been destroyed by French troops in 1658, during the 1635–59 Franco-Spanish War. The wars, and passage by troops of Brandenburg-Prussia, the Dutch Republic, France and Liège, had cost the principality the sum of 2.75 million Reichsthalers, requiring the abbey to borrow 134 000 thalers from Liège and Verviers; another loan, shared amongst the communities, totaled 109 000 thalers, with annual interest of 14 161 thalers and arrears of 26 000 thalers.

By the start of the 18th century the principality had lost a third of its territory, as a result of war, fires, pillage and unjust encroachments.

Abolition

During the French Revolutionary wars, from 1793 to 1804, the abbey was abandoned by the monks and the principality extinguished. Stavelot was incorporated into the French Republic by a decree of 2 March 1793, along with Franchimont and Logne. Malmedy was similarly incorporated by decree of 9 Vendémiaire of the Year IV (1 October 1795). Stavelot abbey itself was sacked and the church sold and demolished.

Of the church just the western doorway remains, as a free-standing tower. Two cloisters — one secular, one for the monks — survive as the courtyards of the brick-and-stone 17th-century domestic ranges. The foundations of the abbey church are presented as a footprint, with walls and column bases that enable the visitor to visualize the scale of the Romanesque abbey.

Art

The abbeys at Stavelot and Malmedy commissioned some of the finest surviving works of Mosan art one of the leading schools of Romanesque art, especially in goldsmith metalwork, which was still the most prestigious form of art. Their collections were dispersed by wars and finally the French Revolution, and works from the abbeys are now in museums across the world. The illuminated Manuscript Stavelot Bible (now in the British library) was probably the abbey's main bible, and created there by several hands over a four-year period ending in 1097  and other works can be identified from the same scriptorium. The bible has been described as "a perfect microcosm of the influences and interests that gave rise to the first Romanesque painting". A group of manuscripts from the less productive scriptorium at Malmedy were donated to the Vatican library in 1816 by Pope Pius V11, including the Malmedy Bible and two Lectionaries from about 1300.  Malmedy illuminations show particular closeness with metalwork styles.

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Stavelot-Malmedy