City places memorial stone to commemorate 900 years of St. Michael’s Abbey (Antwerp)

The memorial stone on Sint-Michielskaai shows the floor plan of the abbey. — © Patrick De Roo

Antwerp –

With a memorial stone, Antwerp commemorates the foundation of St. Michael’s Abbey in 1124. That building determined the appearance of the city for seven centuries, but has disappeared from the collective memory of many Antwerp residents since its demolition in the nineteenth century.

READ ALSO. Nothing remains of it, yet it dominated the city for centuries: St. Michael’s Abbey gets a festive year, exactly 900 years after its foundation

Anyone who walked along the Scheldt quays in 2022 may still remember the archaeological excavations of St. Michael’s Abbey. The size of this structure therefore became clear. In the meantime, these remains are back under the Scheldt quays.

To remind Antwerp residents of this immense abbey, a memorial stone was placed on Saturday at the playground next to Sint-Michielskaai. It consists of a circle of 150 centimeters in diameter in bluestone with the floor plan of St. Michael’s Abbey.

Around it is the inscription in Latin ‘Abbatia Sancti Michaelis Antverpiae MCXXIV-MDCCCXXX’, which means: Saint Michael’s Abbey Antwerp 1124-1830. Next to the stone is an information panel with more information about the disappeared abbey.

Exhibition

The working group will also hold a study day in Antwerp on May 4 Norbertine history in the Netherlands about the subject Norbertus on the Scheldt. 900 years of St. Michael’s Abbey in Antwerp.

A mini exhibition has been set up in the Felix warehouse with extensive documents about the abbey, supplemented with images from the archaeological excavations. St. Michael’s Abbey will be included in the program of Open Monument Day on September 8.

READ ALSO. Ecstatic Bart De Wever takes a last look at St. Michael’s Abbey before a new section of quays is being renovated: “The mighty abbey disappeared beneath the city”

Once a powerful and wealthy monastery

St. Michael’s Abbey grew into a powerful and wealthy monastery that played an important role in the social and political life of Antwerp for centuries.

The impressive monastery complex flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and at that time housed rulers and other important personalities. Renowned guests always stayed in the Prinsenhof, the luxurious guesthouse of the abbey, when they visited Antwerp.

After the closure of the monastery in the French period (1794-1815), the monastery began to decline. The abbey was plundered, damaged and repaired several times, and lost its glory. She suffered the final blow during the Belgian Revolution (1830-1831).

The Antwerp showpiece that once shone on the banks of the Scheldt was demolished shortly afterwards and the remains disappeared underground.