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It is not
exaggerated to claim that the hermitage on the Schaelsberg,
you are going to visit now, is the most well-known and
probably the finest of our whole province.
In a nutshell we want to inform the
visitor of the most important facts in the history and
building of this centuries-old hermit’s dwelling.
The year was 1688 when the Seigneur of
Schaloen Castle, count Gerard Hoen of Cartiels, had the
hermitage with chapel built on the spot where there had
probably been a forester’s hut for centuries. The building
was raised from marlstone. From the beginning a pious hermit
moved into this lodging to spend his days in praying and
mortification amidst the unspoilt nature.
From that year 1688 until 1930, so nearly
two and a half centuries, the hermitage has been inhabited
continuously by one or more hermits. All of them (16 in
number) are known by name. We only mention the very first
one Laurens Plum, the one, like Plum burried in the chapel,
Arnuldus Haesen, and the most famous one Hendrikus Weerts,
who had become a legend already in his lifetime. He lived
here between 1860 and 1889 and served as a Zouave in the
papal army for four years.
When the last hermit had left the
building in 1930 it gradually fell into disrepair. On the
initiative of Valkenburg Veldeke-circle a start of a drastic
restoration was made in 1975, resulting in a finer building
than ever before.
Like the surrounding wood the hermitage
is in the possession of the Society for the Promotion of
Nature Reserves in the Netherlands. Supervision and
maintenance are now in the hands of the Foundation
“Sjaesbergergangk” at Valkenburg.
The visitor finds a little building now,
consisting of four parts, a choir with apse, the nave of the
chapel and two simple little rooms with an upper floor. One
of the rooms has a cellar.
Presumably choir and apse are of an
earlier date than the other parts. The building has been
redecorated several times in the course of the years, mostly
by the inmates themselves.
In former days the garden beside the
hermitage was kept by the hermit himself. On a picturesque
beautiful spot under the trees is an outdoor Way of the
Cross, established in 1843 and restored in 1976.
Mentionable from the interior are the two
tombstones from 1706 and 1764 respectively, which are found
in the wall between choir and nave, the big 5f. high wooden
cross, probably dating from the 16th century, the
indoor Way of the Cross from the 19th century and
the ceiling paintings in the nave dating from 1715 and
those in the apse made in 1903 by the then
occupant Clemens Salingré. Perhaps
the most interesting are the murals from about 1700 and
appearing in 1975. They can be seen behind the altar.
In accordance with pious tradition the
hermit lived from what he himself grew and what the
neighbouring farmers brought him. When the man was starving
too much he let it know to the inhabitants of the valley by
ringing the bell.
Objective Foundation
The Foundation Sjaesbergergangk at
Valkenburg sets out
to promote the preservation of built and
unbuilt objects
of importance or being characteristic for
the place or
region they are situated in. This may be
from historical
or folkloristic point of view or because
of style or position.
Translated by: Paul Vondenhoff
Voerendaal
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