Florennes Abbey

Towards 1025, the community accepted the Rule of St. Benedict and became a Benedictine monastery; 1027 is considered its year of foundation.

[2] On the site, only the former abbey farm remains, on the outskirts of Florennes on the road leading to Morialmé, with a tower characteristic of the 17th century (perhaps originally a dovecote).

[5] The Reliquary of St. Maurus, a masterpiece of Mosan goldsmith's work from the early 13th century, was saved in a nearby church when the abbey was destroyed in the French Revolution.

It was bought in 1838 by Alfred, duc de Beaufort-Spontin, and some decades later moved to Petschau Castle (now Bečov nad Teplou in the present Czech Republic), one of the family's residences.

When the castle was evacuated during World War II, the reliquary was buried for safe-keeping under the floor of the chapel, and forgotten.