De Oude Abdij van Drongen: elf eeuwen geschiedenis
- Editors:
- Format:
- Book
- Year:
- 2006
- Publisher:
- De Oude AbdijKadoc
- Place published:
- Drongen and Louvain
- Language:
- Abstract:
Few religious sites in Flanders can look back on a history as long, unique and complex as that of the Old Abbey of Drongen (near Ghent). On the occasion of the abbey’s designation as a protected monument in 1998 the idea was conceived of carrying out a study of its eleven-century history. From 915 a community of secular canons was established in Drongen. In 1136 this chapter was converted into an abbey of Norbertine canons. Drongen was a rather medium-sized abbey in the Flemish conventual landscape, with about 20 canons and a limited financial scope. In the cultural sphere also, Drongen remained in the shadow of the Brabant Norbertine abbeys.
After the dissolution of the abbey, the expulsion of the canons and the systematic destruction of the abbey’s buildings by the Calvinists in 1578-1579, the canons lived for more than a century in their refuge within the town walls of Ghent. In 1698 they returned to their reconstructed abbey in Drongen. On 1 January 1797 the canons were driven out of their abbey by the civil commissars of the French Republic. The buildings and surrounding lands were confiscated and sold off in lots. From 1797 until 1822 they were in the hands of the ambitious Ghent businessman, Lieven Bauwens, who set up a cotton spinning mill in the abbey.
After the construction of the new Belgian state the abbey was bought by the Jesuits in order to house their expanding novitiate. At the end of the sixties the centre of Jesuit formation was closed and evolved into a community for aging Jesuits. Until ca. 1965 Drongen also enjoyed a good reputation as a retreat centre for secular priests, regulars and laity. In the 1990s it was turned into a multipurpose centre for Christian and Ignatian spirituality, a house of formation and a place offering a wide range of activities relating to the interaction between religion and art. The study adopts a multidisciplinary approach. It develops new insights into the history of the abbey’s founding and of its institutional development. The book also includes in –depth contribiutions on the history of the building and on the abbey’s books, as well as an examination of the abbey’s territorial possessions and material support. The whole story of Drongen as a site for a factory, a Jesuit residence and a retreat centre is almost completely new.
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Publisher URL:
- Number of Pages:
- 528
- ISBN:
- 9789078192046