Abbey of Stavelot

The town grew up around the Abbey of Stavelot, founded ca 650, out of what had been a villa, by Saint Remaclus. The villa's lands occupied the borderland between the bishoprics of Cologne and Tongeren. The Abbey of Stavelot was secularized and demolished at the time of the French Revolution: of the church just the west end doorway remains, as a free-standing tower.