Kloster Knechtsteden

Norbert von Xanten founded the Premonstratensian order In Premontre (near Laon) in 1120 - and already 10 years later (1130), after a donation, the first Premonstratensian monks could settle here.

The basilica was built between 1138 and 1181.

After the Battle of Worringen (1288), that took place only about 10kms east, and later again when troops of the Burgundian Duke Charles the Bold aka "Charles the Reckless) in 1474 sieged the town of Neuss, the monastery got severly damaged. The eastern apse had to be rebuilt (in Gothic style).

When Napoleon occupied the left bank of the Rhine, the last monks fled and the monastery got looted by the villagers. The complex got secularized and sold. It was ruined, when in 1895 the Spiritans ("Congregation of the Holy Spirit") acquired it. They renovated it and founded a seminary.

It was seized by the Nazis in WWII, but after the war Spiritans could return.

A crocodile inside the basilica!!

Actually this is only the third time, that I find a croc inside a church in Europe. This is part of a collection of exotic animals, sent home by the Spiritan missionaries. The collection is display now in the cloister.