Abbey of Our Lady of the Prairies -- St. Norbert, MB
N 49° 45.447 W 097° 09.290
14U E 632898 N 5513297
The ruins of the Trappist Monastery Our Lady of the Prairies at St. Norbert just south of Winnipeg have been stabilized and preserved, earning a Heritage Winnipeg Preservation Award in 2010.
Waymark Code: WMJWFE
Location: Manitoba, Canada
Date Posted: 01/07/2014
Views: 5
The ruins of the Trappist Momatery at St Norbert are simple and beautiful, especially in the afternoon light. The project to stabilize the ruins and open them to the public to tour and enjoy won a local preservation award in 2010.
From the Historic Sites of Manitoba website: (
visit link)
"Msgr. Ritchot, parish priest of St. Norbert, and Archbishop Taché of St. Boniface invited five Cistercians of the Trappist Order from the Abbey of Bellefontaine, France, to establish a monastery here in 1892. The community was named Our Lady of the Prairies. The Romanesque Revival church was built in 1903-04 and the connecting monastic wing in 1905. The guesthouse was erected in 1912 on the foundations of the first church building. This self-sufficient monastery included milking barns, stables, granaries, butter and cheese factory, bakery, apiary, shoemaker’s shop, forge, sawmill, cannery, and greenhouses.
By 1978, the Trappists had moved to a site near Holland to protect their contemplative life from the effects of urban sprawl from the encroaching City of Winnipeg. In 1983, fire gutted the vacated church and residential wing at St. Norbert, which are now surrounded by a fence to protect them from further vandalism.
The adjacent guesthouse was built by the monks in 1912 on the foundations of the original 1892 monastery which itself had been converted into a guesthouse in 1906 before being destroyed by fire in 1912. It escaped the 1983 fire and has been renovated into the St. Norberts Arts Centre.
In 2003, a plaque was erected at the site by the Manitoba Heritage Council. The renovated guesthouse was recognized with a Heritage Winnipeg Preservation Award in 1996 and the ruins themselves were likewise acknowledged in 2010. The guest house is a municipally-designated historic site." [end]