Interesting Sites Nearby
User Reviews
The remains of the former Abbey of Notre-Dame de Clairefontaine are near Clairefontaine, a Belgian hamlet belonging to the city of Arlon. The valley has been inhabited since Roman times and castle Bardenbourg, in which amongst others Countess Ermesinde resided, saw several important personalities of its time. These included Pope Eugene III, who stopped there in 1147 with a group of 18 Cardinals on a trip from Rheims to Trier. The Pope's entourage included Bernard de Fontaine, who became a Saint. It was said that he had been told that someone in the lord of Bardenbourg's family was very ill. Thereupon he got water from a spring not far from the castle, and blessed the sick person with this water. The latter made a miraculous recovery, and this is said to be the origin of the name Clairefontaine. The water is still said to have healing properties.
About a hundred years later, Ermesinde had a vision, apparently seeing the Virgin Mary, and had the Cistercian abbey built here. As the Countess died in February 1247, it was her son Henry V the Blond who constructed the Abbey. It was first mentioned in records in 1250.
The Abbey was destroyed by French revolutionaries. This may be because the inhabitants of surrounding areas used the stones of the Abbey to build their houses.
Around 1875 the Jesuits of Arlon built a new chapel on the place of the old Abbey.
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.