MEDUZ

Chimay beers and cheese: an ancestral tradition
The story starts in 1844, when Jean-Baptiste Jourdain, priest of the little village of Virelles, convinces the prince of Chimay to support the creation of a Cistercian abbey in a clearing in Scourmont. The prince sees the opportunity to cultivate the Rièzes, these lands cleared for pasturage in a poor region and which the inhabitants have ceased to farm.

This is how, after negotiations, 17 monks from the Saint-Sixte abbey in Westvleteren arrive in Chimay in 1850.
Belonging to the Cistercian order of La Trappe, these monks will devote themselves fully to the monastic life under their motto «Ora et Labora»: praise God but also work to earn a living and help the community surrounding them. On the “Mont du Secours”, the monks begin to clear the land and transform the many wetlands to make it fertile. A little later, with the acquisition of 50 cows of pure ‘Dutch’ race, the monks embark on the manufacture of butter. They also produce rapeseed oil and develop a dairy and a bakery; all these activities necessary to ensure income to enable the growing monastic community to live. The best products are sought after by the inhabitants of the region who will become the first ambassadors of the Trappist qualit

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