Val Dieu Abbey

Val-Dieu Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery inside the Berwinne valley near Aubel in the Land of Herve. In 1216 a small number of monks from the Hocht a part of Lanaken, close to Maastricht, settled in the uninhabited valley which shaped the border between the Duchy of Limburg and the county of Dalhem; they known as their settlement Vallis Dei.

The abbey's unique church became destroyed in 1287 at some point of the War of the Limburg Succession. The church become rebuilt, but changed into destroyed again in 1574 during the 80 Years' War, and in 1683 with the aid of the armies of Louis XIV. Under the jurisdiction of Abbot Jean Dubois, from 1711 till 1749, the abbey flourished. It changed into dissolved during the French Revolution, when the church changed into destroyed for the fourth time. The final buildings were left empty till 1844, when they were resettled through the final living monk of Val-Dieu from the time before the Revolution, collectively with 4 clergymen from Bornem Abbey.