Thorn is only a small town, but in the Middle Ages it was the center of a small sovereign state within the German empire, ruled by the abbess of the convent. It all started around the year 995 when a Stift was founded. A StiftStift was an exclusive convent for noblewomen. But it was not a great success. The strict Benedictine rules scared many women off. In the 13th century the convent became a more secular institution. Only the abbess took any vows; the other women could leave when they married. Until that moment, they lived in houses of their own. To the territory of Thorn also belonged the villages Ittervoort, Beersel, Haler, Baexem, Grathem, Ell and Stramproy. The principality had its own coins, a small army and supplied six soldiers to the armies of the German emperor. In 1794 it was over. French troops occupied the town, and the abbey and all its possesions were publicly sold. Many buildings were demolished since, including the abbess's palace. A new tax on the number and sizes of windows and fireplaces in every house forced the people to drastically rebuilt their houses, which were later covered with a thick layer of white paint to hide the traces of these rebuilts. Later, when tourism came up, many other buildings were painted white too. Today most of the buildings in the old center are still painted white, which is why Thorn is called "the little white town". In 1974 Thorn as a whole became a protected monument.

The Stiftskerk (church of the Stift) both outside and inside give an indication of the former wealth of Thorn. Originally it was a church in Romanesque style, built in the second half of the 12th century. Only the lower side of the tower reminds of this. The rest of the church was rebuilt in Gothic style in the 14th until the 16th centuries. Besides this church Thorn also had a parish church right next to it. In 1817, after the parish church had been closed and demolished, the former Stiftskerk became the parish church. A restoration by P.J.H. Cuypers from 1860 until 1880 amongst other resulted in the replacement of the original Romanesque tower by a new, neo-Gothic one. The last white house on the left is the place where my wife's grandmother used to live...

Formerly the abbesses' palace and now the town's city hall. The foreground mosaic executed in cobble stones, retrieved from the MAAS river, depicts the eagle of the German Empire. Cobble stones in eccentric lines are laid thorughout the old center of Thorn.

backback