Zwijvekemuseum - Dendermonde

In 1223 a Cistercian monastery was founded by Lady Mathilda I, Lady of Dendermonde. In 1228 the community moved to the Zwijvekekouter, outside the city walls. As a result of the devastation during the Wars of Religion (2) at the end of the 16th and middle of the 17th century, the community decided to seek the safety of the city walls and settled on the current Nijverheidstraat. When, after the French Revolution (3), the Flemish provinces were conquered by the French, the monastery, like many other monasteries and churches, was seized, sold and largely demolished. In the remains of the late 17th-century monastery, the Zwijveke Museum is now located. The museum gives an overview of the history of Dendermonde in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Nijverheidstraat 1 9200 Dendermonde
To visit:
Every working day 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. From 1 April to 31 October also on Sun: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Wars of Religion (2)
The religious wars during the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century are also known as the Eighty Years' War. It was a war in which the population was directly opposed to the Catholic rulers. They were thoroughly fed up with the abuses, not only of the Church but of all the traditional rulers. They pinned their hopes on Protestantism, which denounced the wrongdoing within the Church. The anger came to a head with the Iconoclasm that swept through the Netherlands in 1566. The churches were stormed and a huge amount of church treasures were lost. Eventually, the Protestants moved north and the Netherlands were split into two areas, the northern Protestant Netherlands, the present-day Netherlands, and the southern Catholic Netherlands, present-day Belgium.

French Revolution (3)
At the end of the 18th century, the French Republic was born: the king was deposed and the power of the nobility and the Church was brutally reduced. During this period, the goods of the Church were seized and sold for the benefit of the state treasury. Monasteries and abbeys were abolished and banned. This arrangement was also in force in Belgium, which was annexed by France. It was Napoleon who reconciled with the Pope in 1801.

Stichting Open Kerken