Orval

Altitude: 280m/919ft

Location

Amid the quiet and picturesque forest of the Gaume, right on the French border, lies the most extensive and most beautiful monastery in Belgium, the Trappist abbey of Notre Dame d'Orval which has had a moving history. There is a legend about the name "Orval" (from the French "val d'or" = golden valley). It tells that Countess Mathilde of Chiny,Duchess of Lower Lorraine, was one day resting near a spring and lost her ring which fell into the water. Saddened she prayed in a nearby chapel and a miracle occurred: a trout brought the ring back to her at which she cried out "this place must really be a golden valley"; the Romans had already described it as such. The arms of the monastery depict this legend by showing a blue stream on which the trout rises with the ring in its mouth. The monks run a flourishing farm and the monastery is famous for its cheese. History

The first monastery in the "golden valley" is said to have been founded in 1070 by Benedictines from Calabria in southern Italy. They were followed in 1132 by Cistercians who began building the Church of Notre-Dame. After a fire in 1251 it was rebuilt in the 15th and 16th c. and was extended around the monastery buildings. However in 1637 soldiers of the French Marshall Châtillon set fire to the complex. The monks began again and the building was successfully restored. Around 1700 the Abbey of Orval, which had adopted in 1683 the strict observance of the Trappist order, was one of the most prosperous monasteries in Europe. The architect Benoît Dewez was instructed to plan new buildings which were consecrated in 1732. However, once again it was French soldiers, this time the revolutionary troops of General Loison, who destroyed the monastery in 1793, and in 1797 the grounds were finally sold. It was not until 1926 that a new beginning was made and this on the foundations of Dewez' building. Finally in 1948 the present new monastery, planned by Henri Vaes, conforming to the architectural practices of the Cistercians but with Romanesque and Gothic elements, could be consecrated.