Nieuwenbosch Abbey Ruins, Ghent, Belgium

Nieuwenbosch Abbey was a Cistercian community established in 1215 in Lokeren. The original site was unsuitable because of the poor water supply and the nuns moved to the site in Heusden in 1257, when the name became 'Nieuwenbosch'. The abbey was stormed and largely ruined in 1579 by the Iconoclasts, and the nuns moved for greater security inside the city of Ghent and built new premises in what is now the Lange Violettenstraat, in part using stone taken from the ruined buildings at Heusden, where the land and the few remaining structures were in due course rented out to farmers. The community was dissolved in 1796 in the French Revolution.

The only visible remaining structure on the Heusden site is the former abbey farm, now known as the Bosseveerhoeve.

In 1948, on the site of the former abbey church (now the garden of the state horticultural college) was discovered a monumental effigy of Hugo II, castellan of Ghent (d. c. 1232), lord of Heusden and father of Hugo III, the most prominent benefactor at the time of the foundation of Nieuwenbosch. The effigy is now in the Ghent City Museum.

References:

Wikipedia

Church of St Donatus

The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.

The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.

The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.

Programmer1 (3 years ago)
Awesome, you can walk around everywhere.

Fabrizio Della Pace (3 years ago)
Beautiful little gem close to the heart of Gent

Els (3 years ago)
Beautiful and peaceful place. You can see all of it in about 15 minutes, definitely worth a stroll.

Oksana (4 years ago)
Definitely worth to visit. It’s free of charge. Would be nice to see it reconstructed

micah plourd (4 years ago)
Lovely grounds worth a visit

Nieuwenbosch Abbey Ruins

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Church of St Donatus