Abee / Abée

A communication to BSI from Pol Herman (email of 23 November 2025) informs: "In the former seigneury of Abée, whose castle is already mentioned in 1139, there were two churches where worship was regularly practiced: Abée, a chapel dedicated to St. Donat, that is also known as église St. Remy, and Scry, whose patron saint was St. Martin of Tours. Abée, Two other places of public worship existed on the grounds of the seigneury of Abée, but they did not always depend ecclesiastically from the parish: Saint-Vitu or Saint-Viteur, chapelle Notre-Dame des Sept-Douleurs et de Saint-Antoine at the château de Saint-Vitu, since around 1570 https://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10112023, and Tielliesse or Tillesse, parish church Notre-Dame (quarta capella) at the château de Tillesse, older than 1215, became the mother church of Tinlot, was later demoted to branch church of Scry until 1834 and now demolished. No baptismal font known."
Additional historical notes on Abée from Pol Herman: "Various historical observations suggest that the origins of the village of Abée predate the 11th century. A modest oratory existed in the 12th century, maybe close to the castle mentioned in 1139. Between 1215 and 1299, the tithe of Abée was ceded by the knight Eustache to the Abbey of Aywières. Following an exchange, it passed in 1254 to the Abbey of Saint-Hubert.
The oldest parts of the current Abée castle date from the 13th century. The castle chapel, located quite for a away from the main castle, was probably built during this same period. It was erected on a levelled roman tumulus in the heart of the hamlet, which comprised of scattered dwellings (now vanished) on the crest of the Abée ridge: a simple, squat nave with a basilica plan, built of local limestone, with a 12th-
century Romanesque chancel. There was no tower. Massive, low walls, barely pierced by three small, narrow windows, reinforced the impression of an oratory reserved for the lord's family rather than a parish church. It stood in the middle of a large square and watches over the tombs of Lord Lambert d'Abée and his wife Gertrude (dated 1312 and 1310). The successive lords of Abée, from the Abée, Blehen, Eynatten, and Argenteau families, all made arrangements for public commemorative services to be held there on certain occasions. In the 14th century, the chancel was modified in the Gothic style. In 1559, Jean de Blehen, the lord of Abée, had a church built (or rebuilt) in the growing nearby hamlet of Scry. According to legend, he had already begun the foundations of a new church for Abée on a site much closer to his castle, near the road to Huy. The inhabitants of Abée were unhappy and complained that the new church would not be built amidst their homes, which were located barely five minutes' walk from the site planned for the new building. The lord decided to punish his subjects of Abée, with whom he was equally displeased, by forcing them to travel to Scry for mass services (until the 18th century, there was only a footpath between Abée and Scry)! It is unknown when the chapel of Abée ceded its status as a parish church to that of Scry. Since then, it
only served as a castle chapel. The nave was extended in the 17th century. Discontent between the inhabitants of both villages repeatedly led to disputes. On August 8, 1793, the bishop decreed that the services of the chapel of Abée would be united in perpetuity with the parish of
Scry. The chapel was pillaged in 1794, during the French Revolution. A tower was added in 1850. The unused chapel was bought by Emile Vierset-Godin in 1878. Today, the church is used by the conservative catholic Society of Saint Pius X. No baptismal font." KIK-IRPA listing for Saint-Remy: https://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10112577."