Cristallerie

Expedition Site 8, Expedition 10, June 14th 2009, Belgium

March 1098
In a marshy plain at Citeaux, a simple monastery rises from the ground. This is the seed that would, within two centuries, produce the burgeoning life of Cistercian abbeys to be found from France to Byzantium, from the Brittany peninsula to Scandinavia - not forgetting Belgium! This "Cistercian renaissance" was a return to the 6th-century Rule of Saint Benedict, a very effective balance between higher spirituality and down-to-earth practicality. The fundamental values are poverty, simplicity and manual work - albeit with a division of labour. The "choir brothers" pray, study and illuminate; the "lay brothers", bearded and uneducated, tended the abbey lands and took care of the manual work.
But the best monks went further than that; they were pioneers in the techniques of building, of working in metal, stone and wood. The Cistercian abbeys were an abundant source of goodness, material as well as spiritual.

Val Saint-Lambert 1202
The abbots were in the seventh heaven… Hugues de Pierpont, bishop of Liège, gave to the abbot and the monks of Signy thirty-two acres of countryside and woods situated in the locality of Val Saint-Lambert, formerly "Champs des Maures".
1738
Saumery, in his "Delicacies of the Liège Country", described the Val Saint-Lambert abbey in these terms: "This famous Abbey of Citeaux, one of the most beautiful monuments in which art and nature have been employed." And Saumery went into ecstasies over the Abbey's setting, hillsides covered with forests of tall trees, the slopes set with vines, gardens, orchards and meadows, in which "one hundred streams wound singing on their way".

The Chapter House and the Scriptorium
Here the Cistercian monks have been working and praying since 1290. They adopted the Roman style for their buildings, as stable and solid as their beliefs and their life. The chapter house and the scriptorium have been restored with loving care by the non-profit making association "The Friends of Val Saint-Lambert" and are used today as reception rooms, for company dinners, cocktails, weddings, etc.

The Chapter House
The spirit of the Cistercians was ever at work in Val Saint-Lambert. However over the centuries the abbey experienced many misadventures. Several fires. A reconstruction (confining buildings, monumental church, an abbey palace) in the second half of the 18th century. And a revolution: that of 1789, which marked its downfall. 1796 marked the end of occupation of the site by the Cistercians. Only a few elements remained of the gigantic beamed roofs, the others gave way to a modern restoration and steel farm buildings.
 
1826 ….. a new beginning, CRYSTAL!
In 1826 this cradle of Cistercian spirituality at Val Saint-Lambert was transformed into a radiant centre for the crystal industry. Everything lends itself to this: the proximity of the Meuse, a region rich in coal, and even the monastic buildings, whose large useful spaces are perfectly adapted to artistic work and large scale workshops. Founded by a chemist, M. Kemlin, and a graduate of the polytechnic, M. Lelièvre, who came from the Vonêche crystal works in the Ardennes, the "Val Saint-Lambert Glassworks Company" rapidly made a name for itself and established its reputation. An ardent spirit was rekindled within newly built and converted buildings. Workers and craftsmen became busy round the furnaces, the gem-cutting workshops, the crystal making workshops, the studio buildings, the forges, the joiners' workshops, the packing rooms and the shops …Employees houses sprang from the earth: 186, all with gardens. Not to mention the schools for children who lived on site.
 
Master craftsmen from the four corners of the world
Repository of precious expertise and a unique collective experience, the Crystal Factory of Val Saint-Lambert has constantly enriched the range of works it offers, as artists of international repute have joined us. People such as M. Szekely, B. Sipak, Ph. Starck, F. Van Praet, K. De Sousa, Y. Zoritchac and many others. Today, the Val Saint-Lambert has a presence in over forty countries, from the U.S.A., Saudi Arabia and Spain to Japan.
Supplier to Royal Families, producer of prestigious unique pieces and trophies, Val Saint-Lambert is also famous for its superb creations of "double coloured cut" crystal.

Source: http://www.val-saint-lambert.com/v2/history.php?language=en

After Cheratte we had some time left and decided to go to the Cristallerie of Val Saint Lambert that wasn't too far of Cheratte. I've seen pics of a place that held all the original tools of once and had to take the pics! I heard it was closed, but an anonymous tip (same guy of Eylenbosch) told me it was open again, but who knew for how long. So I decided to go for it and voila... we did!

What an amazing site. Due to having not that much time we only did the workshop, but I think I will definitely do a revisit for  the rest of the site...