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Sint-Truiden Abbey or St Trudo's Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Sint-Truiden in the province of Limburg. The abbey was founded in the 7th century and was one of the oldest and most powerful in the Low Countries. The town of Sint-Truiden grew up around it.
The great Romanesque abbey church, dedicated to Saint Remaclus and Saint Quintin, was demolished in 1798, four years after the suppression of the abbey. Only the church towers, the crypt, the gatehouse, the abbot's lodgings and a few service buildings remained.
In 1843 the diocese built a seminary on the site, to replace the former diocesan seminary in Rolduc, which as a result of the separation of Belgium and the Netherlands in 1838 had come to be in a different country. Part was housed in existing buildings, and part was newly built on the foundations of demolished abbey buildings to plans by Louis Roelandt. In 1845 a new Neo-classical seminary church was built on the site of Saint Trudo's original, the fourth in this place.
In 1975 a catastrophic fire severely damaged the Baroque abbey buildings and destroyed the 1845 seminary church. In 1992 an explosion destroyed the abbey mill.
In 1999 the outline of the Romanesque abbey church on the site (the Kerkveld) was made visible by means of gabions. In addition, eight steel pillars mark the position and the height (18 metres) of the former pillars in the south aisle. The towers and the crypt were made accessible at the same time by an electronic access system, whereby a code is issued on receipt of payment which opens a fence. The Kerkveld itself is accessible for nothing. At the foot of the towers is a bronze model of the abbey church at the height of its glory.
References:La Hougue Bie is a Neolithic ritual site which was in use around 3500 BC. Hougue is a Jèrriais/Norman language word meaning a \'mound\' and comes from the Old Norse word haugr. The site consists of 18.6m long passage chamber covered by a 12.2m high mound. The site was first excavated in 1925 by the Société Jersiaise. Fragments of twenty vase supports were found along with the scattered remains of at least eight individuals. Gravegoods, mostly pottery, were also present. At some time in the past, the site had evidently been entered and ransacked.
In Western Europe, it is one of the largest and best preserved passage graves and the most impressive and best preserved monument of Armorican Passage Grave group. Although they are termed \'passage graves\', they were ceremonial sites, whose function was more similar to churches or cathedrals, where burials were incidental.