The Arch-preceptory of Alden Biesen

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Belgium, province of Limburg, around 20 km South-east of Hasselt and around 15 km west of Maastricht (NL), commune of Bilzen.

The origin of the creation of the Teutonic preceptory of Alden Biesen dates back in 1220, when the Count of Looz, Arnold III, and his sister Mechtildis van Are, abbess of Munsterbilzen donated to the Teutonic Order a pilgrimage chapel in Rijkhoven. In that place grew "biezen " (reed in old flemish). Alden Biesen means Old Reeds.

It's at this place that the Knights built their preceptory. The gift of 1220 was followed by several others and Alden Biesen became the main seat of the Teutonic Province of Biesen, which will include over the centuries twelve dependent preceptories in the region of Meuse and Rhin.
Each of them benefitted from income that was used at first to support the fight of the Order in the Holy Land, but also in Prussia.

Around 1361, the Teutonic Order left the site of Alden Biesen to settle in the preceptory of Nieuwen Biesen (New Reeds) in Maastricht. The old buildings of Alden Biesen were deserted and almost fell into ruin except the chapel.

Around middle of the 16th century, the Grand Preceptor Winand von Breil, undertook to rebuild a magnificent residence onto the ruins of Alden Biesen.
The rebuilding of the castle itself ended in 1566, with the finishing of the great tower.
At the end of the 16th century, the Preceptor Heinrich von Reuschenberg started a policy of religious education to counter the Reformation. He notably created study grants in the University of Cologne and in the Jesuit college of Maastricht. His successor, Amstenrade continued this project and created a Teutonic College in the University of Louvain. These institutions were recruitment centres for officials and priests of the Order in the region and even beyond.

In the 17th century, as Calvinism reaches the entire region of Utrecht, Alden Biesen remains a Catholic bastion thanks to the actions of the teutonics Preceptors. The medieval chapel is transformed in a church of baroque style. A gallery fitted with a colonnade against the walls of the chapel. This gallery was to be a part of a new hospice for travellers, but it was never built.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the French gardens and the orangery are installed by the Grand Preceptor Hendrik van Wassenaar. He also started modernization works of the castle and reassigned several rooms of the castle to change according to fashions of the time. All the successive Grand Preceptors did the same, transforming the castle according to their fantaisies. The last important installation was made in 1786-1787, when the Grand Preceptor Franz von Reischach installed an impressive English park, where one can find monumental trees, exotic shrubs and bushes, fountains and water games, a roman temple replica, a grotto, an hermitage, a chinese temple and many other such folies.

Having survived the two World Wars with little damage, a big fire ravaged the castle in 1971. State property since then, the castle was entierly renovated. Ceded to the Flemish Region after the federation of the Belgian State, it was adapted for use as convention centre, and it hosts a permanent exhibition of the history of the Teutonic Order.

1. "Official website of the Arch-preceptory of Alden-Biesen."