Nos événements

On the banks of the Scheldt at Bornem, the Abbey of Saint Bernard recalls almost two centuries of monastic life. The buildings themselves go back to a monastery founded in 1603 by the Canons of the Holy Cross, passed to the Dominicans in 1658 and suppressed in 1797 by the French Revolution.

In 1833 they were given a new purpose: the surviving monks of the likewise dissolved Abbey of Saint Bernard at Hemiksem moved into the empty monastery of Bornem, which they first leased and bought in 1836. In 1835 the name and rights of the old abbey of Hemiksem were transferred to this new foundation. Thus Bornem became a Cistercian abbey, inhabited until 2017.

In 1840 the monks built a church in the neoclassical style, which has also served as a parish church since 1956. It was from Bornem, too, that the Abbey of Val-Dieu was repopulated in 1844. Listed as heritage, the abbey bears witness to a long tradition of prayer and hospitality.