Floreffe Abbey

This almost thousand-year-old abbey is located on a promontory overlooking the Sambre. Which allows you to have incredible views of the surrounding area. The monastic establishment was founded in 1121.

Floreffe Abbey was located on a promontory overlooking the Sambre, in the territory of Floreffe, about ten kilometers from the city of Namur, in Belgium.
It was a monastery of regular canons of the Premonstratensian Order, founded in 1121 by Norbert de Aisne. It was richly endowed by the counts of Namur who protected and supported it for centuries. Floreffe experienced a period of decadence in the 14th century, but the Council of Trent led to a stricter religious life being reintroduced into the abbey and the training of priests improved.
The integrity of the abbey was frequently damaged due to conflicts between the Burgundians and the Principality of Liège. The abbey was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its situation deteriorated after the victory of French revolutionaries at Fleurus in 1794 and the annexation of the region by France. A war tribute was then demanded, then the abbey was plundered, suppressed in 1796, the monks expelled, the abbey property sold.
Before the Belgian Revolution and the independence of Belgium in 1830, a small seminary occupied the premises without interruption. There is still a secondary boarding school there and an important center of tourist and cultural activities in the Province of Namur.
Many manuscripts from Floreffe Abbey are found today in libraries or archive rooms, the most remarkable being the one called the Floreffe Bible, dated 1165, and which is in London at the British Library.

At the weekend popular destination