For centuries,
our abbeys were centers of intellectual and cultural standing.
Lobbes Abbey was the principle birthplace
of the tradition of monk copyists.
Talented calligraphists and illuminators of the time gathered in its workshop.
In the Middle Ages, the cultural influence of Lobbes Abbey
largely extended beyond its region.
Until the invention of printing and in a mostly illiterate society,
the copying and decoration of manuscripts, together with prayer,
was the principle activity of nuns and monks.
Dominique Vanwijnsberghe is a real medieval manuscript enthusiast.
A researcher at the Belgian Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage,
he browses in the world's most prestigious libraries
on the hunt for gems created in our abbeys.
THE FABULOUS TREASURES OF THE WALLOON ABBEYS
Today, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe has an appointment with Sir McKendrick,
curator at the British Library at the British Museum.
Among the Walloon monastic treasures,
the British Library owns the bibles of Stavelot and Floreffe
that are considered to be the most remarkable Mosan manuscripts.
I hope it's the right way around.
This manuscript is mostly know for that.
It's unbelievable.
In reality, in the 19th century, it was considered to be very vulgar.
Really?
It's a good example of how the perception of works changes over time.
It's almost not a miniature anymore. It's real painting.
It's very monumental.
Yes, it's incredible.
Obviously, you can see Christ, dominating the whole scene.
And the four evangelists in the four corners:
Matthew, Mark...
Luke and John.
Let's turn the page.
Watch out. It's a difficult operation.
Here's the preface.
GENESIS
Is this the miniature that we attribute to Goderon?
There are different opinions on this subject.
There's an inscription in the manuscript.
It says that Goderanus and Ernesto, two monks,
were responsible for the manuscript.
Like he says, they progressed very slowly.
But after four years, they finished the book.
It was in 1097.
So, it took four years to finish it?
Yes. Four years to complete both volumes.
These manuscripts are occasionally put on display.
But it's very rare.
As they date back to Roman times, you must...
If you want to take them out of here,
you must almost prepare a doctorate thesis to look at them.
Occasionally, you have the privilege of seeing a miniature in an exhibition.
But to turn the pages, you must be accompanied by the curator.
Here's Floreffe.
Again, it's just one of two volumes.
How come this manuscript is kept here and not in Belgium?
Like many of the manuscripts from the continent,
with the suppression of religious congregations on the continent,
particularly during the Napoleonic period,
many manuscripts ended up in private hands on the continent.
And they were also put up for commercial sale.
During this period, London was the major center for trading in books.
And in the mid 19th century,
museums were the biggest buyers.
We could even say that, after the Royal Library of Brussels,
the British Library has the biggest collection of Belgian manuscripts.
Strangely, within the British Museum's collection,
there is a much more recent folio.
A 20th-century work from Maredret Abbey in Entre-Sambre-et Meuse.
Its presence is down to the ex-curator of the British Library's fascination
with the work of the Benedictine nuns of Maredret.
He was very keen that the library should have an example of this work
and that the public could see this in England.
That was really one of his motivations.
He thought that the Maredret sisters
wholeheartedly lived the lives of illuminators.
Or, in any case, like illuminators of the past.
That is, leading a religious life and producing these illuminations.
Here you have Habakkuk with Daniel and the lions.
He's feeding Daniel like the Americans and English feed the Belgians.
Yes, exactly.
Here you have the American eagle.
In any case, he's holding the American flag.
If it really is an eagle. But that's another story.
Here you have the configuration of Canada.
Here's the arrival of the English.
You can see the St. George's cross and the Union Jack
here in the little corner.
And then you've got France.
They're arriving to help the Belgians.
And here are the Germans, having a bad time of it.
A really bad time.
You're one of the few libraries to have a copy of the Maredret miniatures.
Oh yes.
There's one in Paris.
But quite strangely, there are none in Brussels.
Oh really?
Well...
It's a real shame.
Back from London, we're taking Dominique Vanwijnsberghe to Maredret
to rediscover the work of Mother Bénédicte Witz.
Today, they still continue the tradition of monastic illuminations.
What first interested me about the work of the Maredret sisters,
was the fact that I'm a medievalist.
So, I'm used to working on little-known artists
who are generally anonymous and whom we know almost nothing about.
Whereas here, for the first time, I can even interview a nun
and have a first-hand account.
That's fascinating for someone used to working with very few documents.
Mother Bénédicte, how are you? - Hello, Dominique.
It's been a while. - I'm good.
Pleased to see you. - Yes. Me too.
Have you seen the... - Yes. We went to London.
And we saw one of the miniatures at the British Library.
Ah yes. There you go.
Shall we go to the workshop? - Yes.
PRIVATE
Yes, it's really remarkable.
You can see that they've picked up the technique of the Middle Ages.
The gold has such remarkable quality. - Oh yes.
It's deceptive.
I once showed this miniature to a colleague who didn't notice.
He thought it was medieval.
It's unbelievable.
The way in which they've worked out how to draw and paint the leaves is so...
It's very 14th century.
Yes, it's 14th century. - That little leaf.
It's difficult to do them. - Oh, really?
I'll get this and show you. - Yes.
The so-called archaic Annunciation.
That you've done often. - Yes.
Ah, OK. - We've tried it in all colors.
But that's taken from the original.
That's the photo, OK. - Yes.
That's one attempt.
And that's the reproduction by Sister Marie-Louise.
For the Benedictine cards? - For the pictures.
For the pictures, OK. - Yes.
So, that's what's left of the original. - That's right.
OK. And that's the result. - Yes, that's it.
Here you can see that there are only three colors.
There's a tiny bit of green.
There's dark blue, dark red and...
A kind of orange. - That orange.
Why is it important to stay close to the original?
I think you need to stay in keeping with tradition.
So, for each picture, there's a box like that, ready to use?
Yes, big ones or smaller ones.
It depends sometimes.
Are you going to use another color here?
Yes, I'm going to try.
Are you changing your brush too? - No.
How did you choose the color?
Each manuscript has its own colors. - Yes.
Each manuscript.
Each era... - And each era and each school.
Do you also do the faces last?
Yes. It depends.
There are some days when not everything is finished...
Suddenly, I realize that it's going to be OK
and I do the face and often, it's good.
OK. Some days are better than others.
Yes, that's true.
It requires a lot of calm and concentration.
Oh yes. That's true.
You must adapt to... - You have to be present, don't you?
And when you want to pray,
at that moment,
it's quiet enough to pray.
You're focused on this small task.
It's well adapted to the Benedictine precept of work and...
Praying and working. Exactly.
It'd be a shame to lose this tradition. - Yes.
Somebody would need to take up the torch.
If someone wants to take over my job... - Yes.
I'd like that.
Then, I'll devote myself to this.
It's always been my dream, but...
We have lots of dreams like that in life.
You've already done a lot. - Yes.
Well...
But it's true. Someone needs to continue, because...
Have you been here before? - No, it's my first time.
Everything is controlled: from humidity to temperature and lighting, of course.
Dominique Vanwijnsberghe has an appointment with Bernard Bousmanne,
Curator of Manuscripts at the Royal Library of Belgium
that houses numerous monastic treasures in its safes.
Among these, there is a copy of St. Gregory's Dialogues,
one of the 150 manuscripts that are considered to be world heritage.
These are our fireproof and anti-theft safes.
This is where we keep the 150 to 180 Belgian heritage manuscripts,
or even world heritage manuscripts.
You can find the holy of holies here. - Oh really?
And I'll show you a copy of the St. Gregory.
Ah! Superb.
This is a copy of the St. Gregory Dialogues.
It's from the 11th century and was made for Saint-Laurent Abbey in Liège.
It gives accounts of St. Gregory's miracles, visions and prophecies.
He was one of the four great fathers or theologians of the church
with St. Ambrose, St. Jerome and St. Augustine.
As the story goes, when St. Gregory died,
his peers were jealous of his reputation and wanted to burn all his writings.
One day, St. Gregory withdrew to his study
to contemplate his writings.
The young deacon started to get bored and found that the time was dragging
and pierced the curtain separating him from St. Gregory with his stylus.
Through the hole,
he saw that St. Gregory was directly inspired by the Holy Spirit
who is represented here by a dove. - Ah, OK.
So, when St. Gregory died, he told this story, saying:
"You can't burn these writings because they are directly inspired by God."
St. Gregory had made the deacon promise never to tell this story.
If he told it, he'd drop dead.
Indeed, once the deacon told this story, he dropped dead.
But St. Gregory's writings were not burnt, of course.
Preserving manuscripts is just one part of the work carried out in the library.
Scientific studies are also undertaken
in an attempt to fathom the secrets of certain masterpieces.
A binocular microscope allows us to look closely at miniatures
and see the different texture, pictorial layers and touches,
since each miniaturist has their own style.
When we can study the preparatory drawing or the underlying drawing,
it allows us to attribute a miniature to its master.
Fundamental research is also undertaken in the manuscript department.
If we study the manuscripts properly, we can go back to our past and heritage.
We can find out what people said and what preoccupied them
because they also have the same aspirations, desires and fears as us.
But they transcribed them differently.
So, understanding how people lived during this period of the Middle Ages,
is understanding our roots too, of course.
This is what we want to bring about through research.
That morning, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe managed to convince Mother Bénédicte
to leave her monastery and accompany him to the Royal Library of Belgium.
He wants to show her the Breviary of Philip the Good,
a manuscript which often inspired the Maredret sisters.
There you go, Sister. The volume that you wanted to see:
The first part of the Breviary of Philip the Good.
I'm very touched to see it.
Is that the page that you've already seen?
Yes. - Oh, it's that one. OK.
I once came to an exhibition here
and the book was open on the Nativity.
I was so happy, but...
We said that we'd turn the pages over the next day.
Ah, yes. - I couldn't be here the next day.
It's because of preservation issues. To avoid too much light.
Yes.
It's splendid. It's really...
But that's what we did.
Or what we reproduced, let's say.
What we often reproduced.
It's extraordinary how these colors have really...
Lasted for centuries. - Survived over time.
And then, the gold.
Yes, the gold. - The gold has kept well.
Look at this lettering. It's wonderful.
One thing we always wonder is:
How long did it take for illuminators of the time to finish a scene like this?
We have a living illuminator with us now.
Let's ask her. How long does it take you?
For something like that, it would take me 12 to 13 hours.
Or 14 hours. - No kidding!
Yes, it takes time.
You have to prepare it all in pencil.
You have to apply India ink
to all the large sheets.
It's a real joy to see how much pleasure it can give.
And she's a specialist. She makes miniatures.
It's the first time that we've had an illuminator here.
It's like going back to the 15th century.
It's interesting.
And the symbols.
It's a very special green. - Yes.
Slightly gray.
I think I've got the same in there. - Really?
Can you show us?
There's a lot.
Yes, that's it. - Yes, it's the same green.
Lighter or a little bit darker. It depends.
We'll leave you to look at the manuscript.
OK. Thanks a lot.
Oh, it's really...
I feel like I'm dreaming here.
Sometimes, in the silence of the abbeys, surprising personalities blossom.
In the 18th century, in the Aubel region,
Val-Dieu was a peaceful country abbey.
Yet it was there, that the monk, Servais Duriau, had a crazy ambition:
to produce an illustrated encyclopedia
showing as many people as possible the wonders of the world.
This fabulous collection is a complete life's work.
Jean-Louis Postula, a young historian, is passionate about this peculiar work.
He has kept this exceptional collection alive.
Here's the story of the collection of the monk Servais Duriau.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIST OF VAL-DIEU
I discovered the Duriau collection while studying History at Liège University.
At the same time, I was a guide at the cathedral Treasure House.
I heard about the existence of a collection of etchings,
that came from the old Val-Dieu Abbey in the Herve region,
and were being cataloged by volunteers.
In the early 2000's,
following the dissolution of the monk community of Val-Dieu Abbey,
his artistic heritage was transferred here,
in the storerooms of the Treasure House of St. Paul's Cathedral in Liège.
My first reaction was one of surprise,
as it's exceptional to find yourself in front of such a collection
of etchings, images and manuscript texts
which constitute an encyclopedia in pictures,
and is the life work of one man, a monk named Servais Duriau.
And it's a peculiar and original collection
because it's organized like a real encyclopedia,
with each album having a specific theme.
Either a more religious theme or a more geographical or historical theme,
but equally, portraits or more exotic or traditional scenes.
The monk who produced these albums, has a real interest
in a wide range of varied themes.
In order to create these different works,
the monk, Servais Duriau, passionately gathered hundreds of etchings.
Cut up, stuck on and commented on, it's a collection like no other.
Jean-Louis Postula's passionate work
has aroused a particular interest in the Servais Duriau collection.
Today, it's the subject of a restoration program.
A job entrusted to Michel Fassin, a unique restorer of his genre.
In his workshop, he uses his talent with respect and in the spirit of tradition.
I've brought the 5th volume of the collection.
The one that's dedicated to the Roman emperors and saints.
The etchings are splendid.
Yes, some of the works are really beautiful quality.
This is a work based on a Pieter Breugel drawing
from the second half of the 16th century.
It's a work of really beautiful quality, The Parable of the Good Shepherd.
We're really lucky that it was preserved,
because most of the other high quality works in the collection,
were cut up or torn out to be sold.
So, we're really lucky that this one was preserved.
In my opinion, it's one of the finest etchings of the collection.
The paper restoration takes around three months.
Yes.
And to reproduce identical binding...
For 18th century binding, it takes two months.
In total, five months. - Five months' work.
Jean-Louis Postula is visiting Val-Dieu Abbey for the first time.
He hasn't yet had the chance to discover the place
where the monk, Servais Duriau, lived and produced his work.
He's greeted there by Thomas Lambiet, an expert on Val-Dieu Abbey.
Hello, Mr. Lambiet. - Hello, Mr. Postula.
How are you? - Very well, thanks.
Come on. We're going to visit Val-Dieu.
This is where Servais Duriau lived
when he arrived at the abbey in 1722 at 21 years of age,
when Abbot Dubois was in charge.
That's the real golden age of Val-Dieu Abbey.
Yes, thanks to Abbot Dubois. - Thanks to Abbot Dubois.
His coat of arms can be seen up here.
What was the purpose of a small château like this in the abbey's courtyard?
Careful, it's not a château. It was the foreigner's quarter.
It was an important building where important people were greeted.
Not the poor people, as they were greeted at the farm gate.
More likely the VIPs. - Indeed, the VIPs.
They had to show that they were rich and that it was a period of prosperity.
So, they built a large building with five bays.
Three were offset like in the châteaux.
Yes. Here we are in the monks' refectory.
This is where the monks gathered to eat. - An important place for the community.
This is the place where all the monks who lived in the abbey met.
Servais Duriau must've spent many hours here.
All that we know is that he was a confessor
in two Cistercian abbeys in the region
and he was also a superior, or deputy abbot, for 25 years
at the end of his career as a monk.
But we don't know much.
It's only through his etching collection that we can imagine what his life was.
So, it's very moving to be here and see where he spent his life.
This is where Duriau probably spent a very large part of his life
assembling his albums and making notes from the books in this library.
It's a very important place in the history and saga of Servais Duriau.
What do we know about the intellectual climate
at Val-Dieu Abbey in the early 18th century?
There was considerable influence.
We're close to Germany and the Dutch United Provinces.
So, there's both an international and regional influence.
Because Val-Dieu Abbey is the Brabant state ecclesiastic delegate.
That's a considerable political role.
But there's also the training of monks.
With Abbot Dubois, they were rethinking the structure of the abbey
by retraining the monks on a spiritual and intellectual level.
And every Sunday, there's mass for the people in the surrounding area.
And there too, they are trained both intellectually and spiritually.
Consequently, it had a major influence.
The paper is in the process of deacidifying.
As you can see, I'm getting rid of all the old repairs on this paper.
Repairs that were carried out incompetently
with unsuitable adhesives.
By getting rid of all these repairs,
I'm also lifting off the old etchings
because they were stuck down using an acid-based adhesive.
So, I'm removing them and I'll get rid of this adhesive
and we'll put them back again afterwards.
Next, Michel Fassin is going to restore the paper using a surprising machine.
It's a prototype that was created in the 1980s
which allows you to fill up the holes where paper is missing.
It's a fairly simple procedure.
We have two overlapping tanks.
The document is placed in the middle.
In the upper tank, the new fibers are mixed.
And when you activate the restoration process,
the upper tank moves down into the lower tank
and the fibers settle only where there are holes.
This is done imperceptibly and without superposition
and the old fiber binds together with the new fiber.
The main foundation of restoration is reversibility.
So, for every operation carried out on the document,
we must be able to do it the other way around.
We must be able to remove everything we add
without damaging the document.
It's important because, in the future,
we may have other restoration techniques that allow us to go further
or maybe we'll look for something else.
We must be able to retrieve the document in its pre-restoration condition.
Not only is the Servais Duriau collection
a major source of intellectual and artistic heritage,
but it's also a highly valuable testimony
of the evolution of minds in our regions in the Age of Enlightenment.
With Jean-Louis Postula's persistence and Michel Fassin's talent,
this masterpiece finally finds the place it deserves in our artistic heritage.
It's now on display in the Treasure House in Liège Cathedral.
We're in Villers-La-Ville Abbey whose library also no longer exists.
The texts are a testament to its presence and it's clearly quite remarkable.
Tonight, here in Villers-La-Ville
we're with the man who opened the doors of the British Library to us.
Hello, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe. - Hello.
Thanks for being here with us tonight.
In the report that we saw earlier on Maredret,
we can sense all Mother Witz's emotion
as, once again, she can look at the Breviary of Philip the Good
from which she saw one page, one day, a few years ago.
You almost share this feeling that the manuscripts are moving. Why?
One of the things that captivates me the most about the manuscripts,
is that each manuscript is a unique object and has its own story.
So, each time, there's a new tale to tell.
For Mother Witz, it's the manuscript that she hadn't seen for a long time.
But for me, in terms of that manuscript,
it's also a manuscript that belonged to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good.
Philip the Good used it almost daily more than 500 years ago.
You can feel this presence, or aura, in the manuscripts.
Are there any traces of life?
Today, you imagine coffee stains on books.
All things considered, can you see any traces of the owner's life?
Yes, of course.
A restorer colleague found traces of saliva on certain miniatures.
These prayer books were sometimes used zealously by certain devouts.
These are very surprising things.
In some notebooks, we found traces of quills.
Quills? - Probably copyists' quills.
These manuscripts really have a life.
As students, we feel like we are really touching and handling the past.
Yes, and entering the lives of men from past centuries.
What did the libraries of these abbeys comprise?
Did you find only religious or precious books there,
like those that we saw in the clip?
That's the image we usually have.
Indeed, there are huge amounts of religious books kept in these libraries.
First of all, you have bibles.
You have texts from the Church Fathers that are studied and meditated by monks.
You also have medicine manuals, for example.
Yes, for a self-sufficient lifestyle, you had to keep informed.
Exactly.
You have grammar books, lexicons and law books, of course.
You also have botanical handbooks or bestiaries.
All kinds of things that can help in organizing the monks' lives.
One popular image that we associate with this famous abbey library,
the film and book, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco is associated with it,
is that of forbidden books that may be hiding in the abbeys.
Is this a reality? Was there ever an underworld?
Were there collections of forbidden books in certain abbeys?
That's a rather romantic idea and the reality is far more mundane.
Umberto Eco, among others, has greatly influenced my generation.
In fact, the libraries weren't in labyrinths.
They didn't hide any big secrets.
These libraries weren't accessible to everyone.
But, with the permission of the librarian, you could borrow books.
In terms of the contents of these books,
they definitely contained works by ancient authors.
There can be quite risqué passages in antique literature.
Take Horace, for example.
Some passages were still censored when we studied Latin in my day.
These texts were in their raw state in the monastic libraries.
You have to imagine that there were surely some slightly salacious passages.
Were they censored? - Not necessarily.
They were probably just ignored.
It's true that, in these libraries,
the abbots played an important role in terms of transmission of knowledge.
If antique authors have reached us,
it's because their work was preserved, notably, in those libraries.
These antique texts were used to teach Latin.
Sometimes you realize that certain librarians or abbots are on the hunt
for ancient texts.
And they're going to gather some very impressive collections
that will interest 16th-century humanists.
When they are looking for these texts for philological reasons,
these humanists will initially get them from the abbeys.
There was one last thing I wanted to mention with you,
here, by the shelves of these unusual and exceptional written sources.
Here in Villers-La-Ville, some unexpected and unique texts have been found.
You must be talking about the slates. - That's right.
Yes, some slates were found.
They're kept at the Royal Library in Brussels.
They bear inscriptions that are written in quite mysterious writing,
a kind of shorthand of the time.
It includes the user instructions for a clepsydra,
which was a device for measuring time, or a clock.
A water clock. - A water clock. Exactly.
This shows that, at the time, not only parchment was used for writing.
You could also find more unusual things like these slabs of slate.
Slates like we use, or once used, in infant school.
When we wrote on slates with chalk.
Using strokes... That's how we learned to write.
These slates are preserved at the Royal Library in Brussels.
Thank you for sharing all that with us here tonight.
These slates that you mention are part of the historic remains
that were exhumed here in Villers-La-Ville.
I'd like to talk to you about some other historic remains now.
Remains that are both exceptional and surprising
and were lying dormant under the feet of the people of Nivelles.
Established on the land offered by those with power,
the abbeys and the cult of saints that they generated,
are at the origin of creation of the town we know today.
In Nivelles, St. Gertrude and the infatuation she caused
from her death in the 7th century, is one example.
The collegiate, destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in Roman style,
is built, not only on its own ruins but also on those of the original abbey.
This church as you see it now,
has been restored to great depths.
If you'd come here before the War,
before 1940, this is what you would've seen.
A very big church.
It measures 102 m in length.
What happened in May 1940? You know very well.
The Germans wanted to create panic among the Belgian people.
Certain towns were bombed and, sadly, the church was devastated.
The bell completely collapsed
and all these traders' houses that were clumped together
around the collegiate,
as was the custom from the Early Middles Ages,
were destroyed.
The urban reform construction site around the collegiate
provides a unique opportunity to reconnect with this distant past.
Archaeological monitoring is taking place at the same time as the works.
Contractors and archaeologists must work side by side
to explore the remains of the buried abbey.
Alain Dierkens is a medievalist.
He devoted his thesis to the abbeys.
The findings of the archaeologists around St. Gertrude's Collegiate
interest him to the highest degree,
as a link to the history of Nivelles is being unearthed.
THE BURIED ABBEY
Alain Dierkens has an appointment with Martine Osterrieth.
As the custodian of Nivelles Museum,
she is the caretaker of the traces of the town's history.
She wants to show us the first findings from after the bombing.
I've always been impressed that these vaults were found empty.
St. Gertrude was probably in one of them.
Maybe her parents too.
Her mother, no doubt. - Her mother, yes.
And at some point, someone removed her body
from its sepulcher to place it to the east.
The other tombs weren't used? - No.
ST. GERTRUDE'S TOMB LATE 7TH CENTURY
Twenty years after her death, in fact,
Gertrude, the first abbess of Nivelles, was already a cult figure.
Her pious reputation attracted many loyal followers.
They must've completely filled the first funereal church very quickly.
So much so, that they decided to build a second church twice the size
where Gertrude's tomb was displayed prominently to the east.
This is something that happened very quickly.
AUTEL MID 7TH CENTURY
Carefully preserved, to the shrewd eye, these remains show the traces
of five successive churches built around St. Gertrude's tomb.
AUTEL LATE 10TH CENTURY
It's a really exceptional collection. There are no other words.
It was preserved in a crypt that was also the first one of its kind.
FIRST CHURCH - EAST WALL MID 7TH CENTURY
MEROVINGIAN VAULT MID 7TH CENTURY
Gertrude's piety was not the only reason that Nivelles flourished.
At the museum, Alain Dierkens discovers a collection of 17th-century paintings.
Now we understand that the abbess was not just anybody.
One, two, three, four... - They're all here.
Three are in the storeroom. - That's it.
Gertrude was the daughter of the palace mayor
and then the sister of the palace mayor.
The mayor is the great political man of the Merovingian kingdoms.
The palace mayors around that time,
that is, around 640 to 650, were from the Pippinid family.
They are the future Carolingians, Charlemagne's family.
Everything to do with the foundation of Nivelles happens
when her family has political power.
This explains the success of Nivelles abbey.
This close link with the Pippinid family and then the Carolingians.
But the many historic sources in Nivelles, don't tell the whole story.
Around the collegiate, a little known town still lies dormant.
As the necropolis is confirmed up to date,
there's an exceptional and surprising discovery.
No less than 250 skeletons have been discovered.
These are the last two. We still have to remove them.
In this part of the cemetery, there are multiple burials.
Near the roundabout over there, we had individual burials
and here we have a lot of multiple burials.
Here we're faced with skeletons that, ultimately, seem to be naked.
But we've had examples where fragments of shrouds were preserved.
We have individuals who were still persevered in coffins.
All that must be compared.
It's a multi-disciplinary task: anthropology, etc.
Also, why is there a cemetery here? - Exactly.
We don't understand exactly how and why there is a necropolis here,
a few dozen meters away from the market
and facing an extremely dense area of monastic buildings.
To understand it, the first stage is to date this cemetery.
The very first samples have been sent to a laboratory in Miami.
The results will be delivered to the anthropologists shortly.
But the archaeological monitoring has brought other surprises.
You don't find this on every street, even though we have three right here.
This vault has almost been completely dug up.
There's another one that is extremely advanced.
Another one has been located and then there's more.
There's a third one that won't be dug up because of timing issues.
From the material found, we can date it from the end of Antiquity
up to the beginning of the Middle Ages.
What's good is, that all these vaults and the structures behind them
play a part in this global understanding of what existed before the abbey,
the context of the abbey's creation, its evolution,
and its walls and all the surrounding activities.
Another clue that it's an elderly person. - Yes, clearly.
The first carbon 14-dated items have arrived.
That's not a cervical either. - That's a cervical there.
In the room where the bones are stored,
the anthropologists will be able to log these first results.
Marie-Laure, did you have a date for 009?
Yes, 09.
On the bones.
Between 1020 and 1210.
Ah, OK. Yes. - We're in the right...
There's another date for the wood.
For the same one. On the coffin.
On that one's coffin.
Between 990 and 1160.
That's good. It completes things.
We'll start by taking each skeleton separately.
First, we'll try to estimate the age at time of death
and if it's a man or a woman.
We'll take a little look at their health to see if they had any illnesses.
We may not manage to determine the cause of death because...
Unless they had a violent death...
… that left traces on the bones, we don't have anything.
Exactly.
Early ossification of the tendons. - Yes.
If they're nuns, it could be somebody who prays all day,
kneeling down on surfaces that come in contact with the tibia.
We can see that.
Once we have the information on each skeleton,
we'll pool together the data on each skeleton
to try to have a better idea about the buried population
in the zone we're studying.
What's even more impressive than the quantity of human remains found,
is how well preserved they are.
This is very rare in terms of the conditions of preservation,
because we have nine brains that have been preserved.
There are plant deposits inside the coffins,
cushions of plants and fragments of fabric.
This will give us information on the ritual and on the social status.
There are many things.
Not just regarding the funeral, but the whole life of these people.
Furthermore, finding necropolises or tombs in an unusual place
in an area which is in the remit of the abbey,
is historically very interesting.
Especially as the dates we have now seem to be quite consistent.
It's a really fine piece of work.
Nivelles Abbey is a prodigious site.
It's prodigious for historians faced with a major historic site,
which is extremely well documented in terms of very old sources.
Nevertheless, there are numerous holes in the information,
there's missing information.
We can only learn more from archaeological digs.
Now we have the opportunity to satisfy our historic curiosity
and understand an essential political center of the Middle Ages.
Nivelles is not the only conurbation to be redeveloped around an abbey.
Stavelot and Saint-Hubert are other examples,
even though their redevelopment took on a different proportion.
We left him full of enthusiasm for the possible outcome of these digs.
Tonight, he's here with us in Villers. Hello, Alain Dierkens.
We can see from your enthusiasm
that there's something fascinating about such sizeable archaeological digs
in an urban center like Nivelles.
It's fascinating, but at the same time, it must be somewhat frustrating.
At any moment, depending on the site and the redevelopment of the town,
these digs could stop.
A historian lives with frustration.
Early medieval historians, especially, know very well
that a number of things will always elude him.
So, we're used to managing frustration.
With such an important dig site as the one in Nivelles,
the frustration stems from the fact that it can only be undertaken once
and you can't undertake it on a regular basis.
Some of what hasn't been found now, will be found in 50, 100 or 150 years.
When there is other redevelopment. - For other generations.
And the real frustration, or even indignation,
stems from the inevitable destruction due to the redevelopment
without conducting the necessary amount of archaeological research.
Yes. Maybe it's difficult to understand.
For Nivelles people who've had to put up with problematic building sites daily.
And yet, it's essential to undertake large urban digs like that one.
We're still in a stage of negotiation and interim
between the scientific, archeological, historic and patrimonial necessity
to conduct a thorough search
and, of course, the life of the habitat and the future of digs.
We think of cankers like St. Lambert in Liège, that lasted a while,
or like the Grognon in Namur,
which were exceptional digs in terms of historic interest,
but whose future posed a problem.
We understand that municipal authorities
and inhabitants are reticent.
And then there are the things that are found,
maybe from searching just once before any destruction.
That's incredible. - It's essential, indeed.
There's one thing that I want to mention to you about Nivelles.
It's a community of women.
A woman's abbey is not exactly the same thing as a man's abbey.
It's not organized in the same way.
Nivelles abbey is a woman's abbey, you're right.
But to be precise, it's a twofold abbey.
That means, it's overseen by an abbess, managed by a woman,
but within its actual structures,
it also has a community of men.
Canons that look after a number of tasks
that women are not allowed to take on because of religious concepts.
Which ones?
Aspects that are linked to the sacraments and mass
or anything concerning contact with the outside,
because there's the idea that women, especially cloistered women,
must really stay cloistered.
These twofold abbeys are the kind that we know very well in our regions.
That's Nivelles, Mons, Maubeuge, Andenne.
Quite a few abbeys operate this way.
Are women's abbeys supervised, unlike men's abbeys?
The word "supervised" is maybe a little bold
and perhaps you can't generalize.
But overall, that's how to interpret the status of these women.
They are very closely monitored
with men by their side to take care of outside tasks
or look after the keys, as it says in 11th and 12th century texts,
to avoid women going out.
Yet, people also say that in abbeys or monastic communities
there's some degree of freedom for women
within a society that doesn't give much room to the female gender.
That's certainly true.
Once you've taken vows and become a member
of this strictly regulated and reputed community,
there are numerous fields of self-fulfillment
of the spiritual, intellectual, artistic and tender kind.
In some instances, female monasteries are also places of freedom.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us here tonight.
Now I suggest we explore an abbey that has found a new lease of life.
This second activity has repercussions that go way beyond the limit.
Let's take a look.
Paix Dieu Abbey in Amay near Huy has a second lease of life.
Now a training center for heritage trades,
it attracts building professionals from all walks of life.
Thanks to its specialized teaching,
entire parts of an exceptional heritage have been salvaged.
In our country, of course, but also overseas.
Anne-Françoise Cannella is the manager of Paix-Dieu Training Center.
She's developed a range of courses on demand
that are available to heritage professionals.
Currently being restored,
for its students, the abbey is an ideal training site.
A NEW VOCATION FOR PAIX-DIEU
More than 12 years ago, Wallonia decided
to create a training center for heritage trades
here on this site, at the Cistercian Abbey of Paix-Dieu,
which was in very bad condition.
The objective was to restore the site while training courses were developed.
The magic words in the heritage sector are:
"If you can't use it, you can't restore it."
This training attracts people from beyond our borders.
In the inner courtyard, local blue stone is making life difficult
for our French construction comrades.
With this profession, you end up moving around a lot.
Each region has a different kind of stone.
At least if tomorrow, I go to an employer on the other side of France,
I've already worked with stone other than my local stone.
We're going to sculpt a staircase for the dovecot behind here.
Don't necessarily make them any larger, but...
from another angle.
Sarah, you have a tendency to...
You must go really deep down. Go ahead, do it.
See, you have... With your sponge, you must try to...
Stone, wood, metal, painting and decorating.
All the secrets of heritage techniques are revealed here
thanks to trainers who are also local experts,
like Caroline Follien who restored the Versailles gilt.
You're in the brewery workshop.
You can see that they're building the framework
as part of the learning-on-site initiative.
It will eventually reach the old dovecot that you can see at the side.
From the heritage office in Saint-Louis, Senegal,
Ali and Alioune are visiting Paix-Dieu to learn about
the different restoration techniques used on local construction sites.
Hello. - Dominique.
My Senegalese friends.
Dominique. - Hello, Dominique.
Would you have five minutes to show them a grafting technique?
Apparently they had a problem... - A grafting problem.
Yes, a problem on a site in Saint-Louis. - In Saint-Louis.
If you have to make a graft here in the middle.
From what I saw on the photos, your grafts were very triangular,
Like this one. You really mustn't do that.
I'll let you get on with your work, OK? - OK, thanks.
Look, your grafts were like this...
Ali and Alioune need this expertise so that they can properly supervise
the exceptional restoration of Saint-Louis's architectural heritage.
Like the medieval abbeys whose influence spread far and wide,
Paix-Dieu also has major overseas development projects to its credit:
In Cuba, Vietnam, or even here, in Senegal,
where the center has successfully led a large-scale building site.
No less than 120 craftsmen were trained in heritage trades there.
The objective is always to pass on and exchange knowledge
with the desire to ensure that the overseas partner can continue
to pass on this knowledge by themselves and pursue this training
in order to restore their heritage and be universally recognized by UNESCO.
The Paix-Dieu training site, here in Saint-Louis,
has enabled the complete renovation of a colonial architectural hotspot.
Hello, sir.
I'm meeting the secretary general and Vincent Duvigneaud.
Yes, upstairs. - Thanks.
We're at the Assemblée territoriale du Fleuve.
This is where the colonial council used to meet.
Anne-Françoise Cannella has a meeting with architect, Vincent Duvigneaud,
who managed the renovation.
Hello, Secretary General. Hello, Vincent.
He's waiting for her with the new occupant of the building.
What a splendid revamp.
Impressive. Well done.
Impressive.
We've restored it to its old colors.
These are the original colors.
I remember when I came here, there were holes in the ceiling.
It has been treated to protect it from termites.
We've worked hard on the woodwork.
And, of course, the painting. We've recovered the gilt, etc.
It's unbelievable.
What's it like for the regional council to sit in a room like this?
There's a link to history.
The colonial councils made decisions here 120 years ago.
Today, the regional council is making decisions here for the people.
The room inspires the regional councilors.
Look, whitewash was applied here.
A really traditional technique was reapplied here.
In several layers? - Three layers.
It's a technique that had been completely forgotten.
It was particularly well adapted to Saint-Louis's climate
with the ocean being so close.
When you see the disasters with cement. - Yes, exactly.
It was worth insisting on bringing back this technique.
And that can happen after just one year.
The cement deteriorates very quickly.
It's more fragile and less porous than whitewash.
Whitewash allows a building to breathe more.
It's remarkable.
Armed with these rediscovered techniques,
the craftsmen trained at the Assemblée territoriale du Fleuve,
may be hired to manage renovations, including those in the private sector.
It's great because the whole place is in whitewash.
It's all whitewash. From the first layer to the third layer.
Right up to the finish, it's all in whitewash.
Does this pose a problem for the craftsmen and workmen?
No. I trained these people here myself. - OK.
You'll be able to come to Belgium and train our people there.
You master the technique really well.
The result is wonderful.
And the differences in tone... - It looks really good.
That's a blue gray like in Saint-Louis.
What will be in this building?
There'll be bedrooms upstairs
and on the ground floor, there'll be a big restaurant.
It's a beautiful patio. Is it the original structure?
Yes, we decided to keep this patio.
It's fantastic, as often galleries are removed to gain space.
But in fact, it ventilates the whole building.
This fresh air that we have in all the Saint-Louis houses.
It's splendid.
It was closed off before we arrived here on this site.
The whole gallery was closed off. - That's systematic.
We opened up the gallery.
You recovered its original disposition. - Yes.
In the Bay of Dakar,
Gorée Island has also been designated a UNESCO world heritage site.
Anne-Françoise Canella and Vincent Duvigneaud are exploring there.
The training needs are evident,
especially as not one construction company has set up there.
A training site led by Paix-Dieu would be a big help.
Custodian of one of the most important historic buildings on the island,
Eloua Coli wants to create a heritage house there.
We're in what's generally called
"The Admiral's House."
And there's a lot of disease.
At some point, for convenience, they put down a screed.
It was made of concrete and laid above the flooring, of course.
Not at all suitable. - No, of course not.
You can see the consequences.
Are there any plans foreseen for its use?
Yes, it's going to be used as the heritage house.
It's a big building. - Yes, it's big.
There's a terrace that completely surrounds it.
Does the building suffer from being near to the sea?
On this side, when the water is low, there aren't many problems.
But when the water rises and the waves are high,
the backwash reaches the walls, of course.
In other places, there are other problems.
It's in worse condition than I remember, when I saw it 18 months ago.
It's going to be a building site again.
It will be difficult to carry the materials and set up the site.
Yes.
On this coast, that saw its people enslaved for centuries,
perhaps more than anywhere, Senegal needs to claim its heritage back.
A crucial project and a new mission for Paix-Dieu Abbey.
For one last time tonight, we're back in the romantic vaults of Villers-La-Ville.
We could've talked about abbeys for hours,
with it being such a huge field of interest.
It's impossible to exhaust the subject.
I suggest that we meet right away on line
to chat together about this exceptional heritage.
Let's meet in a few seconds on rtbf.be/materre.
You can also see the beautiful photos that you sent us this summer
as part of the competition that we launched with Ciné Télé Revue,
giving you the chance to show us your heritage and your land.
Before I leave you, I wanted to tell you about this publication.
It's a very precious guide by the Institute of Walloon Heritage
which takes you on the trail of the abbeys.
A book of dreams and escapism.
I hope you've also experienced that tonight.
Thanks for joining us.
See you right away on line.
MY LAND: AMONG THE SECRETS OF THE ABBEYS
Subtitles: Babel Subtitling - babelSUB.be