Egmond Abbey - Legacy

Legacy

Many artefacts from the old abbey have been recovered in the years since the 'beeldenstorm' of 1568, such as the altarpiece of 1530, and the Egmond Tympanum, a 12th-century tympanum originally set over the portal of the west front of the abbey church, which since 1842 has been preserved in the Rijksmuseum. At first it was assumed that all the abbey's possessions had been burned, but in fact they had been sold by the Protestant leader who dissolved the abbey, Diederik Sonoy, before the buildings were destroyed. In recent decades the current monastery has been able to recover many lost relics, or at least information about them. The old abbey had been of great importance to artists, and much of that art has survived, against all odds.

Moreover, in the intervening period from 1568 until the remaining ruins were finally demolished in about 1800, the abbey and the associated castle ruins served as an inspiration in its damaged state to many artists who visited Bergen, Schoorl or Egmond to paint the ruins, among them Jacob van Ruisdael in 1655-60.

• Egmond Abbey altarpiece of 1530 by the Egmond monk Jan Joesten van Hillegom

• Jewish cemetery and ruins of Egmond Abbey, by Jacob van Ruisdael

• The Egmond Tympanum, depicting Saint Peter between Dirk VI, Count of Holland, and his mother and Countess Petronilla (chromolithograph of 1860/61)