Thorn Abbey

The history of Thorn was closely bound up with the Benedictine abbey (for both monks and nuns) founded by Bishop Ansfried of Utrecht about 925. In the 13th century it became a secular house for noble ladies whose abbess had the rank of princess of the Empire. The house was dissolved in 1795, and all that remains is the church (R.C.), a Gothic cruciform basilica of the 14th century.

The church was extended in later centuries and was restored by P. J. H. Cuypers between 1860 and 1885, when the tower was heightened in neo-Gothic style.

The interior of the church is whitewashed. Under the crossing is a crypt. In the south transept is the raised "princesses' choir", and at the west end of the church is the "ladies' choir". The high altar (by F. X. Bader, 1769), originally in the Carthusian church in Roermond, was brought here in 1786. The stucco reliefs in the east choir are also by Bader. The most notable of the side altars is a Renaissance altar with a copy of Rubens's "Descent from the Cross".