Maredsous Abbey

Maredsous was founded in 1872 and built over the following decades to designs by Jean-Baptiste Bethune in a thoroughgoing neo-Gothic style, a large complex of abbey church, cloister, school and workshops in grey stone on a slope above the Molignee valley, and it remains a working Benedictine community. It is known outside Belgium for its products: a semi-soft washed-rind cheese made on the site, and Maredsous beers, which are brewed under licence by Duvel Moortgat rather than at the abbey but carry its name. A large visitor centre serves both along with bread and a tasting, and it is busy with Belgian families at weekends. The Molignee valley below has a rail-bike operation on a disused line and two castle ruins.

History

Beuron Abbey in Germany founded Maredsous as a priory on 15 November 1872 at the urging of Hildebrand de Hemptinne, a Belgian monk of Beuron and later its abbot, with the Desclée brothers, printers of liturgical books, paying for land, design and building on an estate of Henri Desclée in the province of Namur. Jean-Baptiste de Béthune, leader of the neo-Gothic movement in Belgium, designed it on the plan of the Cistercian abbey of Villers, and the work was finished in 1892; Leo XIII raised it to an abbey in 1878, and Pius XI made its church a minor basilica on 12 October 1926 (Wikipedia, Maredsous Abbey).

What's there

• Neo-Gothic abbey church - Bethune's complete nineteenth-century scheme.
• Abbey cheese made on site - the washed-rind cheese produced here.
• The visitor centre tasting - beer, cheese and bread together.
• The Molignee valley - rail-bikes and castle ruins below the abbey.

When to go

April to October; the visitor centre is open year round. Two to three hours with the valley. Weekends are busy with families. The church is open outside services.

Things to know

The beer is brewed elsewhere, not at the abbey, which the marketing does not stress. The visitor centre is a commercial operation and can be crowded. Access to the monastic buildings is limited. Public transport is poor.

Nearby

The Molignee valley rail-bikes run below; Dinant lies east on the Meuse.

Key facts