main description

Do enter a hotbed that is steeped in history. The abbey, its ruins, its two museums, the historical one and the drugs one, the marked course and the space that is dedicated to the famous trappist beer will plunge you in the epic and in the everyday-life of the cistercian monks who live in this prestigeous abbey.

additional description

The current basilica is built on the basements of the abbey from the 18th century. In these very wide cellars that excited the treasure hunters during a very long time, the historical museum is set in nine rooms that host the archaeological collection, the lapidary one, the metalwork and the goldsmith ones, and some ancient pieces of furniture and paintings. Some models give us a precise idea about the beauty of the first abbey from the 12th century and the splendour of the one from the 18th century. The drugs museum is in front of the « Botanical » Garden, a name that was given for the medicinal plants at the Middle Ages. Each plant had a specific use : urinary, digestive, bloodstream, breathing… The exhibited implements were used by druggist friar Antoine Perrin (1738-1788). A beautiful collection of glass-made and faience jars for keeping herbs, a wonderful balance, several mortars made with stone and with cast iron, some alambics, some small tools for making capsules are presented in pieces of furniture from that period. Orval was notably famous for its Arquebusade herbal water potions. The collection is rich with a serie of appliances that were used for preparing drugs : crusher, pillbox and for caring such as : hirudo syringe