The little town of Stavelot, 9km/5.5miles southwest of Malmédy on the Amblève, can look back on a great history as an independent princely abbey. The surroundings, especially the valley of the Amblève, are ideal for excursions on foot in the quiet woods on the southern edge of the Hohe Venn.
In
648 and 650 St Remaclus founded in Stavelot and in Malmédy two abbeys which soon adopted the Benedictine rule, and from which the princely abbey of Stavelot-Malmédy was formed. Under the direct authority of the kingdom they experienced, between the 10th and 13th C. in the time of the prince-abbots Poppo and Wibald, the zenith of their spiritual and cultural development, and they produced unique articles of Maasland metal- and goldsmiths' work which can be seen today in many museums all over the world. Their decline was instigated by the destructive Normans, and in the 17th C. the soldiers of Louis XIV, and in 1794 French revolutionaries continued the destruction. The Second World War added to the tribulations of Stavelot.
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