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Origin and history

The abbey of Belval, founded around 1120 by Augustine canons on a fief of the bishop of Verdun, Alberon of Chiny, adopted in 1133 the rule of Premontré. Originally a double monastery (men and women), the nuns soon left the site for Cressy. Under Abbé Philip, disciple of Saint Norbert, the abbey develops a school of copyists and miniaturists, attracting protections and seigneurial donations. Its influence extends to five abbey-daughters and a convent, such as the Etanche or Sept-Fontaines.

Destroyed in 1320, the abbey was rebuilt by Abbé Baudouin II of Beaumont, marking a period of material and spiritual prosperity. In the 14th century, it obtained royal privileges (fishing on the Meuse, free use of salt) and had a forge in the 16th century. The beginnde, introduced in 1533, weakened her income, despite some competent trading abbots. The wars of Religion and the proximity of the border ravaged the site: in 1622 only two canons and seven religious still reside there.

The Counter-Reform revived monastic life in the 1620s, with renewed rigour, theological studies, and the construction of a chapel Saint-Nicolas. In 1741, his library had 2,487 books, reflecting a balanced culture between theology (54%) and the humanities. Deleted in 1790, the abbey was sold as a national property to Basile Joseph Raux, master of forges and deputy of the third state. The church was destroyed in 1795, its furniture dispersed (a part now adorns the church of Grandpré).

The estate, transformed into a castle, passed into the hands of industrial families (Raux, Mathys) until 1914. The remaining buildings, including the 18th century convent house and a small chapel, suffered during the First World War. From his library there remain 83 manuscripts, preserved in Charleville, including a Bible and Missals of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The ensemble was listed as historical monuments in 1991.

Today's architecture combines a 17th-century abbey house, a 18th-century convent building made of stone and brick (22 cells, vaulted gallery), and a basin decorated with statues. The western gate, facing a pond, is decorated with palmettes and ionic pilasters. The site, at the edge of an Ardennes forest, also preserves the traces of a forge and mill operated by a stream flowing into the Wame, tributary of the Meuse.

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