St. Paul's Abbey was a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

in the Netherlands. In 1580 it was the second oldest monastery in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, second only to

Egmond Abbey Egmond Abbey or St. Adalbert's Abbey (, ''Sint-Adelbertabdij'') is a Rule of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of the Annunciation, situated in Egmond-Binnen, in the municipality of Bergen, North Holland, Bergen, in the Neth ...

in the

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

History

The origins of the abbey went back to the foundation, by Bishop Afsried in approximately 1000, of a monastery at Hohorst near

Leusden Leusden () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. It is located about 3 kilometres southeast of Amersfoort. The western part of the municipality lies on the slopes of the Utrecht Hill Rid ...

. In approximately 1020 the monastery adopted the

Rule of Saint Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' () is a book of precepts written in Latin by St. Benedict of Nursia (c. AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Rule is summed up in the motto of th ...

. By 1050 the Monastery, now under Bishop Bernold, had relocated to

, which was already the administrative and ecclsestical focus of an important imperial

prince-bishop A prince-bishop is a bishop who is also the civil ruler of some secular principality and sovereignty, as opposed to '' Prince of the Church'' itself, a title associated with cardinals. Since 1951, the sole extant prince-bishop has been the ...

ric. Here they settled directly to the south of what is now the city's

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

. Dedicated to the

Apostle Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

, the abbey church was consecrated on 26 June 1050. Architecturally the church was closely related to the nearby St. Peter's Church, built around the same time. St. Paul's Abbey church was a Romanesque building with a conventional three-part nave (incorporating a side aisle on each side of the main nave). It was constructed from tuff stone and featured twin towers at its west end. During the course of the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

the abbey was deconsecrated. In 1595 the

Court of Utrecht The Court of Utrecht (Dutch: ''Hof van Utrecht'') was the highest law court in the Lordship of Utrecht from 1530 until 1795 and in the departments of the Batavian Republic (1795-1806) and the Kingdom of Holland (1806-1811) that would become the Pr ...

was housed in the monastery buildings, while the abbey church was transferred to the religious community of St. Salvator, whose own church had been demolished in 1587/88. Most of the nave of the church was demolished in 1707, and the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

met the same fate in 1804. Today all that survives of the church is a section of transept wall, integrated into the row of substantial houses that now lines the Hofpoort Street. The site of the monastery is now the location of the

Utrecht Archives The Utrecht Archives (Dutch: ''Het Utrechts Archief'' (HUA)) is a records department in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The Utrecht Archives manages the biggest and richest collection of documents about the history of the city and the province of Utrec ...

References

Charlotte J.C. Broer, 2007: ''Utrechts oudste kloosters. Van Sint-Salvator tot Sint-Paulus, Utrecht.'' Benedictine monasteries in the Netherlands Monasteries dissolved under the Dutch Reformation History of Utrecht (city) Christian monasteries established in the 1000s Buildings and structures demolished in 1707 Demolished buildings and structures in the Netherlands Buildings and structures in Utrecht (city) {{Netherlands-struct-stub