Abbaye d'Orval
Orval Abbey

**Chug 18th century history in the ruins of the Trappist monastery with a glass of authentic Trappist beer. **

Come by to Abbaye d'Orval to see 18th century ruins, a medicinal herb garden, and a history museum too. Also, beer! There’s plenty to do and see at the abbey.

Known for their authentic Trappist beer. Orval started brewing Trappist beer in 1931, so it might not be one of the first but it’s one of the most interesting sights to see for the ruins. The beer, of course, is brewed locally. The beer is made in the traditional Belgian way by refermenting in the bottle. The brewery is only open to visitors on special Open Door days. Take a 1 hour visit to the brewery!

Monastery museum

Full of history! Abbaye Dorval's museum takes you through the history of the monastery with pieces of the original 12th century abbey recreated. Stone artifacts, art and more are all on display. A lot of the art is from the art deco days, when monk life was trendy again. But there’s some older gems too like the goldsmithing work by an actual 18th century monk Friar Arman Robin.

• Hospitality house: see the history of Abbaye d'Orval animated. No boring, dull info panels to trawl through info to get to the good stuff. Instead, watch a 10 min animated video and see the screens throughout for more.
• Welcome to the Scriptorium where monks would write and copy out books. Yup, before the days of the eBook and even the printing press publishing was real slow.
• Pharmacy museum: right next to the garden, this little museum recreates the 18th century abbey dispensary. Back then one of the monks, Friar Antoine Perrin, was known for making lots of medicine. See all the tools they used back then.
• Herb garden: check out the charming herb garden to see what healthcare was like before modern medicine. It’s not all bad, really. The plants are all labelled so you learn what they’re for if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s quite pretty to see in the summer when the plants look their best in the sunshine.