Religious History of Our Lady of Val-Dieu

 

 

The Cistercian Abbey “Notre-Dame du Val-Dieu” was founded in 1216 by monks from Hocht, near Maastricht (the capital city of the Dutch province of Limburg) in the county of Dalhem. Tradition goes that the uninhabited valley into which they settled was so hostile that the locals called it the "valley of the devil."

 

The monks renamed it "Valley of God," or “Val-Dieu” in French. Val-Dieu was the only Belgian Abbey to survive the French Revolution. Today, the abbey is still linked to the Cistercian Order and the Abbey of Lérins.

The brewery (Brasserie de l'Abbaye du Val-Dieu) was established in 1997 at the abbey farm. Originally, the monks of Val-Dieu brewed beer to make the water drinkable and to avoid diseases like dysentery, cholera, and typhoid.

 

The beers brewed at the abbey today are inspired by the original recipes of the monks. The abbey emphasizes basic ingredients, a rigorous brewing process, and straight up legit water from the regional Gileppe dam.

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