BACKSTAGE
Photographs
Adornes collection
28/01/2023 > 14/04/2023
A photographic exhibition covering a period of about 150 years reveals lesser-known aspects of the life in and around the Adornes Estate. A few themes: the renovation works, the period of the Apostolic Sisters, the lace school, family life, important visitors and the private saloons.
Behind the scenes
In a house like this, people live, people die, occupants change. Sometimes the house is occupied by the owner, sometimes it is made available to the chaplain and sometimes rented out to Apostolic Sisters. It serves as a private home, a school or a museum.
It is converted, built, repaired and furnished. The chapel’s wonderful tower has been restored several times. The sphere has been taken off and renewed, the moon and the sun of the side towers re-gilded. Lightning strikes the estate, fire breaks out, Bruges’ water seeps in and rises and the gutters overflow.
Seasons come and go, changing the appearance of gardens & facades. The trees grow and die and are sometimes felled by storms.
Mass has been celebrated here countless times. This is a place of meditation and prayer.
It is a place of celebration and of welcoming relatives, friends and leading figures from the world of politics, arts and science.
People work here, the land is cultivated, people are being taught and lace is being made. There is a lot of reading. Books occupy a special place. Works of art are collected.
And always (sometimes radically) adapted to the taste of times.
There are periods to be proud of and others where decay lurked around the corner.
But we have endured.
Véronique de Limburg Stirum
