Clairefontaine Abbey

The remains of the former Abbey of Notre-Dame de Clairefontaine are located in Wallonia near Clairefontaine, a Belgian hamlet belonging to the city of Arlon, 3 km from the Luxembourgish town of Eischen.

History
The Countess Ermesinde, in retirement in her dower of Marville, bought from Richard de Wiltz, her share of the land of Delle on 21/12/1242, four years before her death. The Wiltzes had received him as the principal fief as effective attorneys of Arlon, but as Ermesinde and Waleran had long since abolished this function to make it only an honorary function1, this fief was no longer justified. In this was an ancient stud farm whose managers lived in a tenth century keep found by the excavators. The Countess Ermesinde wanted to found a convent there to found a family necropolis in the church in order to better unite the Marquisate of Arlon with the County of Luxembourg. The birth of this convent was therefore primarily due to political aims. Ermesinde had all the horses in the stud farm sold and gave the money as a first gift to the first nuns who came to live in the priory in the keep and where they first built a very small oratory next to the keep, an oratory which was found by the excavators. The workers who began by building the church of the future convent lived in the stud buildings where the horses and their servants were sheltered. These buildings were later demolished but unfortunately were not excavated in order to be able to see what the buildings of a stud farm consisted of at that time and the legend continued as it was that these were the buildings of Bardenbourg Castle surrounded by water! The foundation of the abbey by Countess Ermesinde was not legally and financially effective until four years later by her will dated on her deathbed on 11/2/1247, in favor of the foundation of a women's abbey in Bas-Leu (her age had made her forget the name of Delle, or Delia in Latin, but she had easily retained the name of Bas-Leu, for a village of the same name was not far from his residence at Marville). Later, the forger of this will thought it best to change the name of Bas-Leu to Bialeu (then meaning Beaulieu and no longer Bas-Lieu): he did not like the name Bas-Leu because the lower parts are unworthy of the nobility. The forger also could not stand the fact that the monastery was installed in a former stud farm that had to be well described by the countess in her will. Indeed, the Countess gave away everything in the stud farm. The forger betrays himself by inadvertently copying that the Countess gives all the mares' food in full, a text that he crosses out because he does not want to talk about stud farms, in addition to not having enough space on the small piece of parchment. The food, i.e. hay, is obviously in at least one large building and the grass is in pens. Here is the passage from this false will that interests us with our immediate comment: "[...] dedi integraliter (then follow three crossed out words which are nutritarum omnium equarum, I give all the food of the mares in full), equas meus pullis suis (all my mares with their foals) quarum numerus est LXIIII magnarum (of which the great number is 64), pullorum numerus novem (the number of foals is 9), XL modios frumenti ad mensura arlunensem (40 maldres of wheat to the measure of Arlon, either 40 × 180 litres or 7,200 litres; an adult person consumes 200 liters of wheat per year for his bread, so there is enough to feed 36 people per year),XL libras lucemborgensium denarium (40 Luxembourg pounds in deniers), omnes oves quatuor ovilium meliorum (all the sheep of my 4 best sheepfolds — without the exact location of these sheepfolds the document is legally inadmissible because we could still discuss for a long time which are the best; the forger has therefore omitted the location of these sheepfolds to save space once again), boves et equos ad duo aratra (oxen and horses for two ploughs). Haec omnia data sunt pro aedificiis abbatiae construendis (this is given to build abbey buildings)". Further on it is only said: "Item dedi medietatem omniam pertinentium ad Dele sicut eam emi a Richardus Advocato Arlunensi" "Item I give all the dependencies of the half of Delle as I bought them from Richard (de Wiltz), attorney of Arlon (purely hereditary honorific title)." This last mention must have appeared at the beginning of the will, followed by the description of the stud farm. As the other half belonged to Rudolf of Sterpenich, his devotee, the abbey was built in the half of Richard of Wiltz. CQFD. The Countess seems to want to legalize all the gifts she has already made hand to hand, including the money obtained from the sale of horses and food for them. This false will also abbreviated the first names of the people by a single initial, which makes the document legally inadmissible. By abbreviating the original will, the Countess's false will becomes completely unrealistic, especially by not mentioning her children. In a stud farm there are also stallions, geldings, fillies and not only mares and foals; foals are also more numerous than mares. A foal is weaned after 10 months by stopping suckling but remains with its mother until it reaches sexual maturity. In breeding, the foal is separated from its mother after 6 months. It cannot be drawn up before the age of 2. There are therefore many foals missing from the will. A stallion can only cover 10 mares. There is therefore a shortage of at least 7 stallions to cover the mares mentioned. It must therefore be believed that the forger wanted to gain space and that Ermesinde was more prolific in his text. There would therefore have been about 70 adult horses in this stud, plus a hundred foals which are perhaps sold systematically 6 months after their birth, which would therefore explain the number of 9 foals in this stud. This is what changes us from the wonderful legends that were invented later and which are more than ever still widespread! The valley has been inhabited since Roman times and castle Bardenbourg, in which amongst others Countess Ermesinde resided, saw several important personalities of its time. These included Pope Eugene III, who stopped there in 1147 with a group of 18 cardinals on a trip from Rheims to Trier. The Pope's entourage included Bernard de Fontaine, who became a saint. It was said that he had been told that someone in the lord of Bardenbourg's family was very ill. Thereupon he got water from a spring not far from the castle, and blessed the sick person with this water. The latter made a miraculous recovery, and this is said to be the origin of the name "Clairefontaine". The water is still said to have healing properties.(Based on the book by Alfred Jungen: History of the three mills of Clairefontaine with their scandals).

About a hundred years later, Ermesinde had a vision, apparently seeing the Virgin Mary, who requested and an abbey be built here. As the countess died in February 1247, it was her son Henry V the Blond who constructed the abbey. It was first mentioned in records in 1250.

The abbey was destroyed by French revolutionaries. The inhabitants of surrounding areas used the stones of the abbey to build their houses.

Around 1875 the Jesuits of Arlon built a new chapel on the place of the old abbey. Ermesinde's remains are now in the crypt of the chapel of Clairefontaine.

Literature

 * Bisdorff, Georgette (2012). Clairefontaine, un site médiéval, archéologique et historique. Die Warte: Perspectives 19|2369, 14 June 2012, pages 10–12.
 * Bulletin trimestriel de l'Institut d'Archéologie du Luxembourg, no 3-4, page 163-245, "L'abbaye cistercienne de Clairefontaine - Du rêve d'Ermesinde aux réalités archéologiques", Arlon, 2010.