Egmond Abbey

The abbey at Egmond was founded around 920-925 and was the oldest and for centuries the most important monastery in the county of Holland - the counts were buried here, the Egmond annals were written here, and the library produced manuscripts including the Gospels of Egmond, the oldest illuminated manuscript made in the northern Netherlands, now in The Hague. In 1573, during the revolt, the abbey was destroyed by the Geuzen to prevent the Spanish using it, and it stayed a ruin for three and a half centuries. Benedictines returned in 1935 and built a new abbey on the site, plain brick in the manner of the period, and the community is there now, making beer, candles and pottery which are sold at the shop. There is a small museum on the abbey's history and the medieval foundations are marked in the ground.

History

Tradition says Count Dirk I of Holland founded the abbey around 920-925 as a nunnery beside a small wooden church over the grave of Saint Adalbert. Around 950 Dirk II and his wife Hildegard began a stone church to house the saint's relics, consecrated in or soon after 975, as recorded in the Egmond Gospels, and Benedictine monks from Saint Peter's Abbey in Ghent replaced the nuns; the abbey was refounded in 1935 (Wikipedia, Egmond Abbey).

Highlights

• A foundation of about 920-925 - the oldest abbey in the county of Holland.
• Destroyed in 1573 - pulled down during the revolt and ruined for 350 years.
• A 1930s rebuild - plain brick abbey with Benedictines in residence again.
• Abbey products - beer, candles and pottery made and sold on site.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Before you go

Almost nothing medieval survives above ground - the buildings are twentieth-century. It is a working monastery and access is limited to the church, shop and museum. The village is small.

Nearby

Egmond aan Zee and the dunes are west; Alkmaar is east.

Key facts