Villers Abbey - Villers-la-Ville, Belgium

Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.

I walked into Villers Abbey as one of the more than 100,000 people per year to visit this ancient Belgian monastery and yet I found myself remarkably alone.  Perhaps the March weather, dreary and bleak, kept people away.  To me, however, fortune was in my favor and I welcomed the chilly gray clouds.  Stones will whisper histories in your ear when one is quiet enough.  You cannot appreciate their voices in the clamoring bustle of people with loud voices and agitated thoughts.  So this itinerant enjoyed the friendly silence that seemed to linger in archways and hover above in vaulted ceilings.

The abbey was founded in 1146 AD with a Cistercian order of Roman Catholic monks, in the town of Villers-la-Ville in what is now Belgium.  Cistercians followed the Rule of St. Benedict, an order of monasticism which was quite prolific throughout Europe.  St. Benedict (who lived approximately from 480-547 AD) established what would become the monastic standard.  Under his edicts, monks were to have no personal belongings and live in communities of silence with a strict schedule of prayer, work, and study.  All monasteries uniformly followed all the same rules, but each monastery needed a solitary leader: the abbot.   During their lifetime vows, the monks were under the direct scrutiny of the abbot.

The abbey was originally built in the Romanesque style.  As its name implies, this style of architecture which flourished from about 800-1200 AD looked to Roman architecture for its influence.  Byzantine and Islamic art also provided inspiration.  Cathedrals, monasteries, and castles took on the Romanesque style throughout this period.  However, the successful abbey grew and organically changed over time.  With new construction in 1197, the abbey adopted the Gothic style, born near Paris in 1140.  This style opened up interiors with dramatic vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows while stone decorations and statues adorned exteriors in complex arrangements.  
Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.

             From the beginning of the 16th century through the 17th century, the monks repeatedly left the abbey as they sought safety from invasions. Later in the 18th century, the abbey flourished once again and adopted new architecture, this time in the Neoclassical style, which was essentially the rebirth of Romanesque, looking again to ancient Rome and Greece for inspiration. Unfortunately, the abbey’s renaissance was short lived and it was devastated during the French Revolution.
Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.


Later 19th century Romantics would visit the ruins, which would inspire and enthrall them.  And for that, there is no mystery.  While decimated, the ruins still convey beauty and peace.  Spaces, once interior, are now open.  With walls and doors missing, the crisp air is free to come and go, unlike the monks that communed here.  Green, once contained to the gardens, now creeps over the stone walls.  It is a delicately beautiful place, bordering on sacred but no longer for its hymns and prayers but as a testimony to history and the achievements of grand architecture.   The Rule of St. Benedict is no longer enforced, but one is pulled into quiet as the stones whisper their story.
Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.


Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.
Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.

Villers Abbey in Villers-la-Ville, Belgium.  Photo by April Downey.





REFERENCES:

“Cistercian.”  Encyclopedia Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cistercians
"Gothic Architecture.”  Art Encyclopedia.  http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/gothic-architecture.htm
“Romanesque Architecture.” Art Encylcopedia.  http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/romanesque.htm#definition
“Saint Benedict.”  Encyclopedia Britannica.  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Benedict-of-Nursia#ref285261
“Timeline.”  Villers Abbey.  https://www.villers.be/en/timeline


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