Abbey of Our Lady of the Dunes: Ruined gate to the abbey

Founded in 1107, it was visited by St. Bernard himself and had great prestige in the thirteenth century before declining. (Saint) Robert de Bruges was appointed the first abbot in 1139 (formally aligned with the Cistercian order). The abbey church was consecrated in 1262. The monastery was destroyed, burned by Calvinist troops in 1577. Transferred to Bruges in the seventeenth century it was abolished in 1796 by the French revolutionary authority and the monks were expelled. There is a museum on the site of the ruins in Koksijde.