Grandpré Abbey

All that remains of the former Cistercian abbey is the beautiful entrance gate , the farm buildings and the mill. The rest were burned and looted during the French Revolution.

The Cistercian abbeys are always located in places with the same characteristics:

- isolated, but without exaggerating. Usually in a wooded area

- grouped buildings in a valley, near an important watercourse

- there must be a mill and the possibility of setting up workshops where the necessary work can be carried out within the fence so that people have to go outside as little as possible

- not within villages, castles or in the countryside

The presence of water is decisive for establishing an abbey in a place. The collection (from a source, stream or rainwater) and distribution of the water to the mill, farms, fishponds and ponds is done via a hydraulic network that starts from a higher reservoir.

Here it is the Samson River that provided the necessary water supply and flows through the estate.

The Cistercians, also known as schieringers or schieren monks, were extremely militant, preached and led crusades and conducted inquisitions against dissenters. They took an active part in the fight against the Cathars and incited bloody heresy hunts

Separated from the Cistercians are the Trappists; they form an independent order and live according to a stricter rule, the so-called strict observance.

Willem Vandenameele