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Imperial Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy

Imperial abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy
  • Principauté abbatiale de Stavelot-Malmedy  (French)
  • Preensdom Stavelot-Malmedy  (Limburgish)
  • Abdijvorstendom Stavelot en Malmedy  (Dutch)
  • Fürstabtei Stablo-Malmedy  (German)
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
651–1795

Coat of arms. On a blue field, the upper half shows a man, robed in red, with a bishop's staff in his left hand, a church building in his right; the lower half shows a wolf, with pannier sacks on his back.
Coat of arms
Map highlighting the Abbacy of Stavelot, a region containing Stavelot and Malmedy. It is along the banks of a river and nestled between the duchies of Limburg and Luxemburg and the Bishopric of Liège.
Stavelot-Malmedy, as at 1560, within the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle
Capital Stavelot
Government Principality
Historical era Middle Ages
 •  Malmedy abb. founded 648
 •  Stavelot abbey founded 651
 •  Abbot Poppo of Deinze 1020–48
 •  Abbot Wibald 1130–58
 •  Annexed by France 1794
 •  Creation of Ourthe 1795
 •  Congress of Vienna* 9 June 1815
Area 600 km² (232 sq mi)
Preceded by 		Succeeded by
Carolingian Empire
Ourthe (department)
* Stavelot to  United Kingdom of the Netherlands; Malmedy to  Prussian province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg.

Coat of arms. On a blue field, the upper half shows a man, robed in red, with a bishop's staff in his left hand, a church building in his right; the lower half shows a wolf, with pannier sacks on his back.
Coat of arms

The Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Princely power was exercised by the Benedictine abbot of the imperial double monastery of Stavelot and Malmedy, founded in 651. At 600 km2 (230 sq mi), it was among the smaller territories in the Empire. Along with the Duchy of Bouillon and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, it was one of only three principalities of the Southern Netherlands that were never part of the Spanish (later, Austrian) Netherlands all having been a part of the Lower Rhenish Imperial Circle, rather than the Burgundian Circle.

As a prince-abbot, the abbot of Stavelot-Malmedy sat on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the Imperial Diet. Along with the handful of other prince-abbots, he cast a full vote (votum virile), in contrast to the majority of imperial abbots who were only entitled to a collective vote on their respective curial benches.

In 1795 the principality was abolished and its territory was incorporated into the French département of Ourthe. The Congress of Vienna] in 1815 assigned Stavelot to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and Malmedy became part of the Prussian district of Eupen-Malmedy. Both are currently parts of the Kingdom of Belgium—since the 1830 Belgian Revolution and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles respectively.


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