Nivelles - Collégiale Sainte-Gertrude

In 640 an abbey was founded here by Iduberga (aka Itta, Ida), wife of Pepin I (aka Pippin the Elder), majordomus under three Merovingian kings and forefather of the Carolingians. After Pepin´s death Iduberga moved into the convent and lived the life of a nun, while her daughter Gertrude became the first abbess here.

The abbey began as a community of nuns. After Irish monks were sent by the (Irish) Abbot Foillan to give support to the nuns, a "double monastary" developed.

For most of the Middle Ages the abbey remained an "Imperial Abbey" and from the 12th century, the community slowly changed as the members then became canonesses regular who came from among the nobility.

The old abbey church, erected from 1000 on and consecrated in 1046, was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe in 1940. After WWII the church was rebuilt to its 11th and 13th centuries architecture.

When I was here the last time, the crypt and the excavations under the nave were closed. Now they were open. The archeologists found out that five consecutive churches thad been built here between the 7th and the 10th century. Saint Gertrud was buried in the first of these churches, only about 20ms long and dedicated to Saint Peter.