Abdij van Oosteeklo | |
 Modern school on the former site of the abbey in Ghent | |
  Location within Belgium | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Cistercian nuns |
| Established | before 1217 |
| Disestablished | 1796/1842 |
| Site | |
| Coordinates | 51°11′00″N3°41′12″E / 51.183419°N 3.686711°E /51.183419; 3.686711 |
Oosteeklo Abbey was aCistercian nunnery founded inOosteeklo in 1217 and later moved toGhent.
In the Middle Ages the lay brothers and the secular tenants of the monastery played an important role in the agricultural development of the sandyheathland around the village of Oosteeklo.
In 1577, during theDutch Revolt, the abbey was plundered and razed. Seven surviving members of the community regrouped under AbbessElisabeth Fransmans and in 1585 moved into the Posteernehof in the city ofGhent.[1] UnderJoanna de Hertoghe (died 1630), the abbey church was built in Ghent, and under Francisca vanden Steene (abbess 1636–1668) the refectory, chapter house and infirmary were built and the church decorated.[2] While established in Ghent the monastery did retain extensive property and rights in and around Oosteeklo. Their former guesthouse in the village is now listed as built heritage.[3] On 11 May 1666Gerard de Baere,Abbot of Dunes, granted permission for a chapel with portable altar to be built on the former site of the abbey in Oosteeklo.[4]
In 1796 the Revolutionary authorities suppressed the house in Ghent and confiscated the building, which in 1797 was sold at public auction. The former nuns bought back the house through a front man, and continued to live in it as a clandestine community until 1814, when again officially recognised as a monastic house. Over the course of the subsequent few decades, the community died out. In 1842 the former monastery buildings were transferred to the Jesuits, and in the early 20th century to theDe La Salle Brothers.[5]
The abbesses listed in theGallia Christiana, vol. 5 (Paris, 1731), 227–228, are as follows.