Made out of monastic buildings in addition to a church, they were built at the beginning of the 16th century by Margaret of Austria,[1] daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.

The complex was designed as a dynastic burial place in the tradition of the Burgundian Champmol and Cîteaux Abbey, and the French Saint-Denis.

Conrad Meit's career led him from his birthplace at Worms on the Rhine, to the Wittenberg court and finally to Cranach's workshop in Mechelen.

These are at the then newly built Royal Monastery of Brou, today in France, but then in the province of Bresse, part of the Duchy of Savoy.

The upper part, in expensive imported white Carrara marble, represents the Duke in ceremonial costume, surrounded by Italian-style angels (putti).

To the north, the tomb of Margaret of Bourbon consists of a single effigy placed within an enfeu and lying upon a piece of black marble, with pleurants beneath, a traditional Burgundian feature.