Saint-Martin Abbey, Tournai

The abbey was dissolved during the French Revolution in 1796 and the buildings were largely demolished except for the abbot's palace, which today serves as the town hall.

[4] The transition from the Rule of Augustine to the Regula Benedicti occurred in 1095 on the advice of Aymericus, abbot of Anchi.

At the end of the 13th century, it had about a hundred monks who managed a vast estate and had founded no less than forty priories.

A new abbot, the chronicler Gilles Li Muisis (Le Muisit), was appointed and soon began to play a part in temporarlily restoring some of the secular prestige of the abbey.

[6] The Siege of Tournai during the Hundred Years' War devastated the abbey and the harvest of the monks in 1340 and made it impossible to continue.

[7] Under Abbot Robert Delezenne, St. Martin's Abbey was radically rebuilt,[8] designed by renowned architect Laurent-Benoît Dewez.