Middelburg Abbey (''The Abbey of our Lady'') is a former

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

abbey in

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. At one time it was the centre of a large monastic complex.Middelburg Abdij
su Info Middelburg Today parts of what survives are used for a museumHarmans, Gerard M.L. (a cura di), ''Olanda'', Dorling Kindersley, London, 2005 - Mondadori, Milano, 2003 and as offices. Located approximately 65 km (40 miles) west of

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil p ...

, Middelburg is the principal town and regional capital of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

in the

History

The origins of the abbey go back to the early twelfth century or earlier. Premonstratensian canons arrived from

St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp St Michael's Abbey in Antwerp was a Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1124 by Norbert of Xanten and laid waste during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1807 a semaphore station was installed in the tower of the church. The buildings were demolis ...

in 1127, creating a monastery on the site of a former

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

stronghold A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

.Gambaro, Cristina, ''Olanda'', Giunti, Firenze, 2003, p. 132 The canons established a large religious foundation, eventually incorporating two churches. The monastic foundation also held extensive lands on

Walcheren Walcheren () is a region and former island in the Dutch province of Zeeland at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Eastern Scheldt in the north and the Western Scheldt in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus. The two ...

(then an island) and in

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

. In 1401 the abbey was brought under direct papal control. Many of the monastic buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1492. Another fire, in 1568 was focused on the two monastic churches. Today many of the surviving buildings from the monastic period (including the so-called "new church") are in the late Medieval Gothic style, and date from a rebuilding in the second part of the sixteenth century. An important sixteenth century abbot was Nicolaas van der Borcht who in 1559 became the first bishop in the newly formed (and short-lived)

Diocese of Middelburg The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg was a short-lived (1559-1603) Latin Catholic suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Archbishop of Utrecht, with episcopal see at Middelburg, on Walcheren (former) island in the Dutch Zeelan ...

. Monastic life came to an end in 1574 when the Spanish defenders under

Cristóbal de Mondragón Cristóbal de Mondragón y Otálora de Mercado (1514–1596) was a Spanish general during the Eighty Years' War. He was a prominent military figure of the sixteenth century, and was colonel of one of the Tercios of Flanders under the Duke of Alv ...

capitulated to the (Protestant) Dutch separatists at the end of the two year Siege of Middelburg. While negotiating the surrender of the town William of Orange had given guarantees that the clergy would be left alone, but both the abbey and

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in Middelburg were nevertheless forcibly terminated. Meanwhile, the abbey was renamed as the ''"Hof van Zeeland"'' and taken over for use in the secular administration of the province. Initially it was used as the seat of the district assembly (''"Staten van Zeeland"'') and for other administrative bodies including the locally important admiralty (naval) department, a mint, and a court chamber. Following extensive administrative reforms during the Napoleonic occupation, in 1812 the former abbey complex became known as the "Province Building" (''"Provinciehuis"''). The abbey church was badly damaged in May 1940 by German aerial bombers targeting Middelburg in order to persuade the Dutch army not to hold out against

German invasion German invasion may refer to: Pre-1900s * German invasion of Hungary (1063) World War I * German invasion of Belgium (1914) * German invasion of Luxembourg (1914) World War II * Invasion of Poland * German invasion of Belgium (1940) * G ...

: during the years of austerity that followed the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

rebuilding was not completed till 1965. Other abbey buildings continued to accommodate government activities till the end of the twentieth century, such as the

land registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, a ...

and state archive. Since 1972 a part of the complex has housed the , and in 1986 the "

Roosevelt Study Center The Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS) is a research institute, graduate school, conference center, and library for the study of US history and transatlantic relations in the modern era located in Zeeuws Archief, in Middelburg, the N ...

" moved into another part.

The churches

To the south of the cloisters are two Protestant churches which are today still referred to as "Abbey Churches", reflecting their monastic origins. From the outside they are contiguous, though on the inside it is no longer possible to move from one to the other without leaving the building.

Choir church (''Koorkerk'')

Around 1300 the abbey's old church building was replaced with the Choir church (''Koorkerk''), which is physically divided from adjacent New Church. The church comprises a tall chancel of seven arches in length, with a five sided apse to the east of the choir stalls. As part of the rebuilding after its destruction by fire in 1568, elaborate roof vaulting was added. Nieuwe Kerk Middelburg

A prominent feature of the town's profile is the abbey church tower known as "Lange Jan" (''"Tall John"'') on the southside of the Choir church. The lower part of the tower dates from the fourteenth century. The more elaborate higher parts were added in 1712 and then reconstructed following the destruction of 1940.

New church (''Nieuwe Kerk'')

The New church (51°29'58.96"N 3°36'53.08"E) features a double nave. In its present configuration it dates from the rebuilding that followed the fire of 1558. It replaced an earlier church built around 1300 which also featured a twin nave despite being smaller. The eastern wall of the New church is also the western wall of the Choir church, and the two interiors were originally connected through an arch, but this was subsequently blocked up. After 1833 the New church became the only parish church for the central walled area of Middelburg. The designation "New church" was used to differentiate this building from two older churches in Middelburg: the West Minster church (demolished in 1575) and the North Minster church (demolished in 1834). The "New church" is notable for its organ, which was built in 1954 by Pels & Van Leeuwen, a firm from

Leiderdorp Leiderdorp () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland near the city of Leiden. It had a population of in . The municipality covers an area of of which is water. Leiderdorp has now become a suburb ...

. More eye-catching is the housing that accommodates it, which was originally created in 1693 for a church in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

by the carpenter-craftsman Jan Albertsz Schut. The organ casing was extensively restored in 1996, the action of the organ itself in 2004.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Abbey, Middelburg Premonstratensian monasteries in the Netherlands Monasteries dissolved under the Dutch Reformation Former Christian monasteries in the Netherlands Christian monasteries in Zeeland Politics of Zeeland Rijksmonuments in Middelburg, Zeeland Gothic architecture in the Netherlands