Basilica minor of Val Dieu

About

The Basilica of Our Lady of Godsdal (French: Basilique Notre-Dame du Val-Dieu) is a 19th-century basilica in Val-Dieu, Belgium. It has been a basilica minor since Pope Pius XII raised in 1946. She is dedicated to Our Lady and built in neo-Gothic style. The Basilica is the abbey church of the former Abbey of Val-Dieu of the Cistercians. The church was recognized and protected as a monument of architectural heritage in 1942, expanded in 1975 by the Agence wallonne du Patrimoine (Patrimoine cultural immobilier classé de la Wallonie).

History: The Abbey of Val-Dieu originated in the early 13th century as an extension of the Abbey of Hocht (near Maastricht). In 1216 the then Count of Dalhem, Lotharius of Are Hochstaden, donated land for a new abbey in the Land of Herve, right on the border of the county of Dalhem and the Duchy of Limburg. Henry III of Limburg also made a donation for the new community. In 1217 and 1218 the foundation was confirmed by a papal bul. In this place, in the sparsely populated valley of the Berwijn, a monastery community was established in a short time and at its peak...