Aduard

[aCloudyBlue]

Some years ago I visited the village of Aduard. It is absolutely tiny and was once home to a prestigious monastery of which only the infirmary is left.

The name of the monastery is Sint Bernardushof, named for st. Bernard of Clairvaux, and it belonged to the Cistercian order. It existed from 1192 'til 1594. The infirmary building is now used as a church.

I snapped a picture of the outside of the infirmary, and of the 3D-model layout of what the monastery used to look like. To get an idea of the scale - the infirmary is number 39 on the map. (If anyone's interested, I could try translating all of the 3D-model board. )

3D-model layout


Infirmary front


(The volunteer guide told us the funniest story about how the monastery was given a relic (some dude's bones) which they were absolutely not happy with because they knew the guy whilst he was alive and didn't care for him. They couldn't refuse the relic, however, so they kept trying to pass off the bones as a gift to other churches.)

[themediaevalmonk]

Thanks for sharing these photos! That must have been so cool to see in real life! I love the relic story. That is absolutely hilarious.

[judejuggs]

Oh my god its huge!!!    I have such a hard time imagining the scale of monasteries sometimes. Especially with orders like the cistercians where they tried to produce everything they needed to live on site. Also the sluice gate is crazy. Personal water supply. Its so complicated to maintain a community of people....

I can guess at the buildings of the cloister, but I would be interested to know what all those outbuildings were used for, if you're up for translating.

This is such a cool map thank you for sharing!