Home > The History > to the expulsion of the community
Apart from the repurchase of farms and other property which had belonged to the Abbey, two religious, in particular abbot Gérard and Father Georges with the help of other brethren and even that of laymen, secured the repurchase of the Abbey, its church and adjacent properties, no doubt in the hope of later re-establishing religious life at Leffe. Better days proving slow to return, the property was again sold by certain among them. Saint-Hubert de Sir de Melin, a layman associated with the first sale, became the second purchaser of the church, the monastery and its outbuildings. He had the church demolished, of which only the sections of the walls which had resisted mining and blasting, remained. Parts of them can still be seen.
As for Frédéric Gérard, on 12 October 1812 he bequeathed all his property to his niece, directing that she should restore the Abbey when that should become possible. He died in 1813.
Resold in 1816 to a French company of Monthermé managed by Auguste des Rousseaux, the Abbey was converted into a glass works; furnaces and a manufacturing shop were set up in the ruins of the church, workmens’ families were accommodated in a part of the monastery.
The industry lasted for 15 years and the company collapsed in 1830. Creditors took over the property themselves and kept it until 1839. Put up for sale once again at that time, it did not find a buyer. A part of the Abbey was then converted into a paper factory and later into a linen works; the other part, namely, the farm containing the brewery, the cattle sheds, the stables, the storerooms, three main buildings and the old quarters of the Father Abbot and the canons, was sold in 1842 to M. Jean-Joseph Wauthier of Leffe. On the death of his wife on 13 February 1883, it was decided to put the property up for sale. Like other religious houses, the Abbey of Leffe appeared doomed to oblivion. In 1844, the last surviving religious died. Everything appeared to be finished, when a strange event contributed to a revival of the Abbey.
[updated on the 28.10.05]
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Glass works
In the XIXth century, the Abbey was converted into a glass works; furnaces and a manufacturing shop were set up in the ruins of the church, workmens’ families were accommodated in a part of the monastery. (read more)
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