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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:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.