Ter Doest Monastery in Bruges

Ter Doest Monastery in Bruges has a rich history. At the beginning of the 12th century, these lands were granted to the monks of the Order of St. Benedict. They began to rebuild their abbey, but there was little land and not enough. Despite all the difficulties, the temple was still built.

The history of Ter Doest Monastery in Bruges

Some time later, the monks joined another order, the Cistercian Order. A characteristic feature of this order is considered to be modesty and asceticism. They were recluses and rarely interacted with anyone outside their monasteries. However, this did not prevent them from building the Ter Doest monastery in Bruges, developing a fairly rapid activity around a small abbey, significantly expanding it and filling the territory with a variety of buildings. In particular, there was a farm with outbuildings.

Features of Ter Doest Monastery in Bruges

The active development of the monks' activities continued for more than 200 years and gradually subsided by the 14th century. Further, difficult times came for the abbey: there were wars, the government was changing, the French occupation, and peasant reforms. All this led to the slow collapse of the once strong and wealthy monastic household.

Today, only one barn remains of the former grandeur of the Ter Doest monastery in Bruges. The sturdy stone structure has impressive dimensions. It was not washed away even by a major flood, although it was still severely damaged. Over the years, the roof was replaced with a thatched roof with a tiled roof, and since then it has been standing here for more than 900 years. Of course, the Ter Doest monastery in Bruges is an amazing monument of ancient history that has survived to the present day and it deserves attention and reverence.