Roosendael Abbey (the abbey of the valley of roses) was a community of

Cistercian nuns Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order of the Catholic Church. History The Cistercian Order was initially a male order. Cistercian female monasteries began to appear by 1125. The first Cistercian monastery ...

, founded in the 13th century on the banks of the River Nete in the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant, a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085–1183, and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. The Duchy comprised part of the Bu ...

, at a location now in , in the

Sint-Katelijne-Waver Sint-Katelijne-Waver (, old spelling: ''Kathelijne-Waver''; , ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver and Sint-Katelijne-Waver proper. In 2021, Sint-Katelijn ...

municipality. The monastery was established in or before 1227 by the nobleman

Gillis Berthout {{Infobox noble , name = Gillis Berthout , title = Chamberlain of FlandersLord of Leffinge, Lichtervelde, and Oudenburg (by marriage) , image = , caption = , CoA = Or, three pales gules , ...

, according to later tradition for his daughters Elizabeth and Oda. An early member of the community who gave it a wider reputation for sanctity was Blessed Ida of Louvain. The monastery was ordered closed in 1795, during the French occupation of Belgium, and the nuns were forced off the premises in January 1797. The main building became a country house in the 19th century. In 1828 the archivist of the

National Archives of Belgium The National Archives of Belgium (; ; ; all ) is the main depository of the State Archives (Belgium), State Archives of Belgium (''Archives de l'État''; ''Rijksarchief''). It is located on the /, next to the Mont des Arts, Mont des Arts/Kunstberg ...

was notified that a pile of old parchment was available from a second-hand clothes dealer in Brussels. This transpired to be the remains of the monastery's archives, with over a thousand documents, including papal bulls and ducal charters, the oldest going back to 1235.

Current use

The site is now a residential youth centre. The grounds are a park. All that remains of the monastic buildings are a monumental gate, a coach house, an infirmary and an ice cellar.Domein van Roosendael
, local authority tourism website. Accessed 14 December 2015.

References

{{Reflist 1220s establishments in Europe 1797 disestablishments in Europe 18th-century disestablishments in the Southern Netherlands Cistercian monasteries in Belgium Christian monasteries established in the 1220s Sint-Katelijne-Waver