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Submitted: June 9, 2008
Image Size: 202 KB
Resolution: 1020×599

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Tienen Beguinageby ~B-F-G

Photography / Architecture / Exterior

well... this is an interesting case. is this interior or exterior architecture?

Anyway, this is the ruined church of the beguinage in Tienen, Belgium. A beguinage was a community of unmarried woman who took several semi-religious vows (chastity and humility) but notably no vow of poverty. Their vows also did not last a lifetime and they could leave the beguinage whenever they wanted.

They lived together in semi-closed neighbourhoods outside the town walls or at least outside the centre of town. They had their own houses (or shared a larger house among several women). They made a living by handwork or sometimes masses some fortune by trading.

Their origins are not entirely clear. Perhaps they originated as a protest against the openly frivolous lifestyle of medieval clergy. Another hypothesis links their origins to a lack of men due to the crusades and the wars that plagued the Europe of the high Middle Ages. Whatever their origins, they eventually developed into succesfull independant comunities.

They also had a male counterpart (Beghards), but they seem to have been far less numerous.

The beguinage of Tienen became one of the biggest and richest in Belgium. Unfortunately most of the beguinage was destroyed during allied air raids in 1944. The church apparently burned down in the 1970's

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~fegie Jul 1, 2008

_{That's really interesting. I didn't know such places had existed...}

*humanofprey Jun 29, 2008 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Interesting architecture, pretty appealing

Nice shot

~Quiroga Jun 25, 2008

Wowwwww looks a marvelous wiew but its some image of the past building?

~B-F-G Jun 25, 2008

i've never seen any image of the building in tact, but apparently it looked exactly like the beguinage church of Sint Truiden, and i have some pictures of that [link] [link] [link]