Abbey Museum of the Dunes

About

Abbey Museum Ten Duinen is a museum located in the Belgian seaside resort of Koksijde, near the site of the Abbey of Our Lady Ten Dunes of the Order of Cîteaux. The Abbey Museum Ten Duinen is one of the two municipal museums of Koksijde with the Navigo National Fishing Museum in Oostduinkerke. The museum is also popularly called the Dunes Abbey. This name refers to the former museum of the 1950s and the influential medieval Cistercian abbey on the Flemish Coast.

The medieval abbey of Our Lady Ten Duinen in Koksijde: The history of the abbey dates back to the 12th century. From a hermitage settlement grew a Benedictine abbey that joined the Cistercian Order in 1138. The Dunes Abbey developed into one of the largest abbeys in Flanders, with at the end of the 13th century a possession of about 10,000 ha in today's Belgium, France, the Netherlands and England, and a community of up to 370 members (1/3 coormonks, 2/3 lay brothers). The 16th century led to the destruction of the abbey: floods in Zeeland, the reformation, imagestorm and confiscation, conscious demolition of the buildings, advancing sand that flooded the site...