Lambert, lord of Lissewege, left an estate with a chapel in 1106 to the Benedictines, who built an abbey there. This affiliated itself to the Cistercian order in 1175 as a daughter house of Ten Duinen Abbey in Koksijde, of the filiation of Clairvaux. It had a daughter house of its own, the Abbey of Onze Lieve Vrouw Kamer, founded in 1223.
The abbey played an important part in the building of dykes and the reclamation of land in the coastal areas of Flanders, Zeeland and Holland, and also in the wool trade.[1]
Willem van Saeftinghe, a lay brother of Ter Doest, fought with the Flemish in the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302, where he is said to have unhorsed the French leader, Robert, Count of Artois, whereupon other Flemish soldiers killed him.[1] In 1308 during a revolt of the lay brothers, Willem killed the cellarer of the abbey, and injured the abbot, Willem van Cordewaegen, so badly that he nearly died.[3][4]
In 1624 Ter Doest was united with Ten Duinen, which in 1627 moved to Bruges. It was dissolved in the French Revolution in 1796.
Buildings
Inside the barn
Almost the only building to survive is the tithe barn, 50 metres long and over 30 metres high, built in 1250.[1]
The abbey once had a vast church with three aisles, which was destroyed in 1571 by the Calvinists. The church stood close to the abbey farm, 't Groot Ter Doest, built in 1632, which still stands, as do an octagonal chapel of 1687 and a monumental porch of 1662.[5]
^Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John, 1993: The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. London: Penguin Books ISBN0-14-051312-4
^Willam was pardoned by the Pope on condition that he serve in one of the military orders; he joined the Hospitallers and is believed to have been killed during the conquest of Rhodes in 1309.
