Aulne Abbey
Aulne Abbey was a Cistercian monastery located between Thuin and Landelies on the river Sambre in the Bishopric of Liège, Belgium. It is now a Walloon Heritage Site.
History
Aulne Abbey was originally founded as a Benedictine monastery in 656, on the banks of the Sambre in the Vallée de la Paix in the Bishopric of Liège, by Landelinus, abbot of Crespin Abbey. Sometime before 974 the Benedictines were replaced by secular clerics leading a common life, who, in 1144 adopted the Rule of St. Augustine.At the instance of Henry of Leyen, Bishop of Liège, it came into the hands of Cistercian monks from Clairvaux in 1147, under Franco de Morvaux as its first Cistercian abbot. From that time onwards it flourished as a Cistercian monastery. The monks constructed an extensive irrigation system and six ponds that provided fish for the abbey. Building commenced on the abbey church in 1214 by Father Gilles de Beaumont.
French revolutionary troops burned the abbey in 1794, only a short time after it had been rebuilt on a larger scale. The library, which contained 40,000 books and 5,000 manuscripts, was also destroyed. In 1859 the last monk died; the Monastery was abandoned and the abbot's residence turned into a hospice.