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It was in the
context of political tensions and defensive military preparations
that Ename made its first recorded appearance in European history.
By the terms
of the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the European Empire of Charlemagne
was partitioned into three parts : West Francia, Middle Francia
(stretching from Friesland to central Italy), and East Francia.
By 925, the political map had changed and the French kingdom and
the German Empire became the two dominant West-European Powers,
facing each other across the boundary formed by the course of the
River Scheldt.
The French kingdom
ooccupied more or less the territory of modern France and, after
the coronation of the German king Otto I as the ruler of the Holy
Roman Empire by Pope John XII in 962, the German (or Ottonian) Empire
extended from the north of Germany and the Netherlands to central
Italy. The boundary between these two vast kingdoms lay along the
course of the Scheldt River.
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Map
of Europe around 1000
(Illustration : Hilde Vercauteren, Alfa grafisch) |
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A fortress was
consequently erected at Ename, around which a trading settlement
developed. This trade outpost was established with official sanction
of the imperial authorities and consisted of a market, a toll house
and an enlarged port. The site enjoyed rapid growth and considerable
prosperity, as evidenced by the establishment of two town churches,
dedicated to Saint Sint-Salvator and Saint Laurentius. By 1005,
Ename was described in the famous text known as the "Auctarium
Affligemense" as "the most important seat of the duchy
of Lorraine."
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| Virtual
reconstruction of the first trading settlement |
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The fortress
of Ename consisted of a donjon, a surrounding rampart, a palace
compound, and one or more wooden buildings, all built around 975.
The walls of the donjon were approximately 3m thick and 25 to 30m
high. In that era, such a donjon would have been considered a masterpiece
of construction and one of the empire's most significant building
projects.
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| The
Ename fortress |
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In 1033, however,
the fortress of Ename was destroyed by Boudewijn IV, the count of
Flanders, whose forces crossed the River Scheldt to attack the Ottonian
Empire. In 1047, his son Boudewijn V took permanent possession of
Ename, completely changing the nature of the settlement there. To
demilitarize the Ottonian border site, he founded a Benedictine
abbey, which was built over the ruins of the earlier buildings.
Only the Saint Salvator Church, the official church of the Ottonian
settlement, remained standing. Also the Saint Laurentius Church,
established in the agricultural settlement a few hundred meters
to the east, remained standing. The merchants and craftsmen who
had lived at Ename over several generations now left the site to
find new livelihoods in the recently founded city of Oudenaarde,
on the other side of the river Scheldt.
In the centuries that followed, the abbey of Ename remained the
focus of community life. A village of workers and farmers gradually
developed around the abbey and participated in its agricultural
and industrial activities.
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| The
abbey of Ename around 1663 |
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remain until 1794, when the revolutionary government of France ordered
that the monastery at Ename be closed forever. A Parisian company,
Paulee, was commissioned to dismantle most of the abbey structures
and sell their bricks and stones as building materials. One of the
only remaining structures of the abbey -formerly serving as the abbey
court and prison - was remodeled for use as a country estate by a
prominent van Hoobrouck de Fiennes family. At the same time, the former
west wing of the abbey was transformed into a stable and the surrounding
gardens and meadows were used to graze horses. By the end of the 19th
century, even these buildings had fallen into ruins and were dismantled,
leaving only meadows and gardens visible on the surface of the site. |
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| The
former courthouse of the abbey at the end of the 19th century |
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