Abbey of Rolduc

Rolduc , (Latin: Ground Ducis , or Closterroda , Roda , Kloosterrade , and Hertogenrode ) is an abbey located in the commune of Kerkrade. The name Rolduc comes from the Napoleonean time and is a contraction of Grind-the-Duke , the French translation of Hertogenrode. It is today the most important preserved monastic complex of the Netherlands.

History

In 1104, the young monk Ailbertus van Antoing left with two companions his monastery of Tournai, of which he considered too much the rules monastic release, to be gone from there to found with 's-Hertogenrode (today: Kerkrade) the abbey of Rolduc. Work began in 1106 with construction from a crypt dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Gabriel archangel, which was completed two years later. The construction of the church lasted until in 1209. Following dissensions on following giving to work, Ailbertus left the abbey in 1111. He dies in 1122 in the surroundings of Bonn. After more than 750 years, in 1895, its bones are finally transferred in the crypt.

The abbey was attached to the order of the Augustins, and obtained in 1136 the protection of the dukes of the Limbourg, of which some, like Walram III, are buried in the crypt.

Its existence was strewn by many attacks and fires, which attinrent their paroxysm during the Guerre Eighty Year old. It was renovated in 1680 on the initiative of the abbot Winandus Lamberti.

The abbey accepted on January 2nd 1723 the right to work the coal mines on the territory of Kerkrade. They were the first houillières of the Netherlands and the birth of a flourishing industry in the area. In 1775, the abbey employed 350 minors.

At the XVIIIe century an invaluable library in style rococo is built there.

In the year 1831, when the territory returned to the Belgium, the abbey accommodated the Séminaire Principauté of Liege, then in 1839, during fastening to the Netherlands, the Séminaire of échevêché of Ruremonde.

Since 1970, the abbey of Rolduc is mainly used like centers congress and like hotel. It can accommodate to 300 people.

Annals Rodensis and Continuatio

The history of Rolduc is especially known through Annals Rodensis, a chronicle over the period 1104-1157. Those probably were written towards 1155 by a monk. Later, taken again the Heyendal abbot the chronicle with Continuatio, which begins the year from its oath, in 1685.

See too

External bonds

Site of the abbey of Rolduc

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