Saint-André de Bruges Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey in Sint-Andries

Sint-Andries

Sint-Andries is suburb of Bruges in the province of West Flanders in Belgium.The Jan Breydel Stadium, where the football teams Club Brugge and Cercle Brugge play, is situated in Sint-Andries....

, Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. The charter of the abbey was signed on February 22, 1100.
Count Robert II of Flanders ratified it in June of 1100. It was decided to build the abbey on the site of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Anne. The first monks arrived on August 17, 1117. In 1188, the abbey became independent of its mother abbey and a period of prosperity began. It lasted until the fourteenth century. In 1240, after a long dispute between the abbot and the local parish priest, a wall was built in the church to divide it into two.

The abbey was severely damaged during the second half of the fifteenth century during the German occupation. In 1521, Emperor Charles V and his brother Ferdinand came to this monastery.

In the sixteenth century, the abbey was badly damaged and most of the monks had to flee. It was rebuilt in the seventeenth century, but the constant wars and its location outside the walls of Bruges exposed it to further damage.

The abbey was finally destroyed during the French Revolution. A new monastery was built in 1899-1900; Zevenkerken Abbey is part of the Abbey of Saint-Andre and is a prestigious boarding school.