Tongerlo Abbey was founded in 1128 by Giselbert of Kasterlee, who not only gave the land, but also himself became a lay brother in the new community. The first monks were sent from St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp.
From small beginnings the abbey became influential in the district called Campine, now in north-east Belgium and the south of the Netherlands, then a wild area. The bishops of Cambrai, the chapters of Liège and Maastricht, and several landowners entrusted the charge of parishes, with the right of patronage, to the abbey. In time the abbey had to provide priests for some forty parishes in these parts.
With the erection of new dioceses (1559–60) in Belgium and the Netherlands, heavy burdens were cast on the abbey, for not only had it to provide funds for the new diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch, but the new bishop was put at its head as abbot. This state of affairs lasted until 1590, when, to obtain its independence, the abbey had to give up much property in support of the new diocese. The abbey was a centre of education. It possessed one of the largest libraries, and was able to take up the work of the Bollandists.
The rise of Calvinism in the Netherlands caused conflict. Three monks of Tongerlo became Catholic martyrs: Arnold Vessem and Hendrik Bosch in 1557, and Peter Janssens in 1572. In the seventeenth century Francis Wichmans of the abbey rallied local Catholics.
The abbey's property was confiscated and sold by the French occupying forces in 1796, but in 1840 was bought back under its post-revolutionary re-founder, Peter Hubert Evermode Backx.
In 1899, under abbot Thomas Louis Heylen, a filiation was made to Manchester as Corpus Christi Priory.
The abbey is also the site of a Leonardo da Vinci Museum, which contains a 16th-century copy on canvas of Leonardo's Last Supper, in approximately original size. The copy reveals many details that are no longer visible in the original fresco due to deterioration.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.