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Located outside Hasselt, in present-day Belgium, Herken rode Abbey was once the wealthiest Cistercian convent in Flanders. Founded in the late 12th century, it attracted the daughters of nobility and, despite a checkered history, survived essentially intact until the French Revolution. After the region’s annexation by France, religious houses were purged and Herkenrode sold to a pair of industrialists. The convent’s nadir arrived in 1826, when the abbey church, then serving as a factory, burned to the ground. Two-hundred years later, Belgian artist duo Gijs Van Vaerenbergh has recreated its silhouette in steel tubes, the first part of Clausura, a poetic project to resurrect the entire cloister in ghostly outline. In parallel, Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh, both trained architects, have published the book Fictional Ruins to mark their 20 years in practice.

Photo © Jan De Wilde