After Dissolution
Further degradation to the site occurred in 1855 when the railway line between Leuven and Charleroi passed through the old abbatial grounds.
In 1893, the Belgian state purchased the site and launched a conservation effort. Classed as an official historic site in 1973, the abbey has subsequently enjoyed considerable restoration, and the remains of the abbey along with numerous outbuildings can still be seen, including the cloister, refectory, kitchens, dormitories, and brewing house. Since 1992, the site has been maintained by the "Association pour la Promotion Touristique et Culturelle de Villers" (APTCV).
The church, although in ruins, is an outstanding example of Cistercian architecture, with imposing vaulting, arches and rose windows.
The abbey now hosts an annual choir festival "Nuit Des Choeurs" in which a number of choirs sing a variety of music - classical through to gospel, jazz and pop arrangements - from different parts of the grounds over successive nights culminating in a firework display and centre stage concert.
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Famous quotes containing the word dissolution:
“...that absolutely everything beloved and cherished of the bourgeoisie, the conservative, the cowardly, and the impotent—the State, family life, secular art and science—was consciously or unconsciously hostile to the religious idea, to the Church, whose innate tendency and permanent aim was the dissolution of all existing worldly orders, and the reconstitution of society after the model of the ideal, the communistic City of God.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“From low to high doth dissolution climb,
And sink from high to low, along a scale
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—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)