Val-Dieu Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Wallonia in the Berwinne valley near Aubel in the Pays de Herve ( province of Liège , Belgium).
6-473: In May 1997, the first European Conference on Soft Traffic and Railways Paths (held at Val-Dieu Abbey , Belgium) voted to set up the European Greenways Association (EGWA). This association was created by many local, regional and national associations active in the scope of sustainable transport , willing to share their knowledge and objectives at a European level. A greenway is defined as
12-399: A stand-alone route for non-motorised traffic, developed with the following objectives: to integrate facilities & increase environmental value and quality of life. Greenways encompass the following characteristics: suitability of width, slope & surface to allow secure, appropriate use for a wide range of users including mobility impaired people. The current President is Giulio Senes, who
18-659: Is a professor at the Università degli Studi di Milano. EGWA is a member of the European Cyclists' Federation , and through that the World Cycling Alliance . The EGWA is active at different levels: To provide information about all aspects of the creation of a greenway from the first discussion to the delivery of the finished greenway for all the actors of the deployment. This includes technical info, political & administrative info, ... many studies have been performed by
24-657: The War of the Limburg Succession . The church was rebuilt, but was destroyed again in 1574 during the Eighty Years' War , and in 1683 by the armies of Louis XIV . Under the jurisdiction of Abbot Jean Dubois, from 1711 until 1749, the abbey flourished. It was dissolved during the French Revolution , when the church was destroyed for the fourth time. The remaining buildings were left empty until 1844, when they were resettled by
30-513: The association and are freely available online. Val-Dieu Abbey In 1216 a small number of monks from Hocht Abbey in Lanaken , near Maastricht , settled in the uninhabited valley which formed the border between the Duchy of Limburg and the county of Dalhem ; they called their settlement Vallis Dei (French: Val-Dieu ; Valley of God ). The abbey's original church was destroyed in 1287 during
36-526: The last living monk of Val-Dieu from the time before the Revolution, together with four monks from Bornem Abbey . The abbey was closed again in 2001, when the last three monks left. Since 1 January 2002 a small lay community has lived there, under the leadership of rector Jean-Pierre Schenkelaars, overseen by the regional ecclesiastical authorities, in association with the Cistercian Order . In 1997
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