The 42.2m-long bridge crosses above the Benendenvliet near the historically important site of the Abbey of Saint Bernard The connection is designed to boost bicycle traffic between Schelle and Hemiksem Steel constructor Hye worked with lifting specialist Sarens to place the bridge on its supports Sarens used a 700t telescopic crane to position the 37.8t structure Ney & Partners is responsible for the architectural and structural design of the bridge Sign up to get our twice-monthly email update Medieval convents were better funded than many scholars assume thanks in part to royal patrons sympathetic to the holy women’s mission In Sylvia Townsend Warner’s newly republished novel The Corner That Held Them, much is made of the financial distress of an isolated convent Medieval monasteries might have been set up as enclosures of prayer and devotion at odds with the quotidian the minor abbey is by necessity very worldly indeed fickle patronage—there’s more Mammon than God as the nuns struggle to get by So what were the finances actually like in late medieval “women’s houses”? As historian Erin L. Jordan writes there is a “considerable body of documentation about monasteries previously neglected by scholars.” This is especially so for the Cistercian order which had its origins in the late eleventh century and which set up hundreds of new abbeys within a few decades These records complicate the traditional reading of gender and patronage in monastic life The historiography is full of assumptions that men’s houses scored the serious patronage because nuns “were perceived as less capable than men of offering patrons an effective spiritual return on their material investments.” Against such assumptions who dug into the records of thirty-seven Cistercian foundations for men and women in thirteenth-century Flanders and Hainaut offers evidence of much greater complexity There were solid patrons for women’s houses after all A royal was as good a patron as you could get Flanders and Hainaut had been united under Baldwin IX in 1190 then her sister Marguerite ruled until 1280 “In spite of (or perhaps because of) their tumultuous personal and political lives both women were avid supporters of religious communities in their domains.” Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" The records show that “patrons of both sexes established Cistercian nunneries and those nunneries went on to attract gifts from both male and female donors.” Jordan doesn’t deny that there were very real disparities between men’s and women’s houses: Since patronage can no longer be identified as the root of the physical disparities between men’s and women’s houses The evidence examined here suggest that such explanations lie in the consideration of more pragmatic factors She notes that these very gendered abbeys can be thought of “as complementary rather than as competitors.” While Sylvia Townsend Warner’s fictional abbey is Benedictine both her vivid historical recreation and Jordan’s detailed history can also be seen as complementary Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Austria’s win2day Beach Volleyball Tour PRO visits capital Vienna Hemiksem hosts a stop on the Belgian Beachvolley Championship tour Poznan welcomes a Polish National Beach Volleyball Tour event Kyiv continues to be the home of the Ukrainian domestic circuits Vienna hosted a stop on Austria’s win2day Beach Volleyball Tour PRO last week Top-seeded Katharina Schutzenhofer & Lena Plesiutschnig celebrated the women’s gold on Sunday They swept the final with an emphatic 2-0 (21-12 21-11) victory over Slovenia’s Tjasa Kotnik & Tajda Lovsin Michaela Wengler & Katharina Mascherbauer earned the bronze after a 2-0 (21-19 23-21) win over Magdalena Rabitsch & Katharina Holzer for the third place Women’s results and standings The top three seeds lined up on the men’s podium in the Austrian capital in the “correct” order Mathias Seiser & Laurenc Grossig mastered a 2-0 (21-18 21-18) sweep of the final against Timo Hammarberg & Tim Berger while Paul Pascariuc (pictured in the main photo; credits: Gert Stefan Nepel) & Laurenz Leitner needed three sets to shape up a 2-1 (21-18 15-9) bronze medal victory over Tobias Winter & Felix Friedl Men’s results and standings A post shared by win2day Beach Volleyball Tour PRO (@win2daybeachtour) Top-seeded Martijn Colson & Dennis Deroey delivered a 2-0 (21-13 21-16) victory over second-seeded Daan Hendrikx & Christophe Witvrouwen in the men’s final in Hemiksem which hosted last week’s stop on the Belgian Beachvolley Championship tour The bronze medal match was also decided in straight sets 2-0 (21-17 21-14) in favour of Seppe De Keyser & Jente De Keyser over third-seeded Yentl Van der Aa & Tom van Walle Men’s results and standings The top seeds lived up to their status in the women’s tournament as well Britt Ruysschaert & Isabel Van den Broeck claimed the gold after a 2-0 (21-14 21-15) straight-set final against Netherlands’ Floor Hogenhout & Trijntje Veerbeek A three-set battle in the third-place match ended 2-1 (21-16 15-8) the way of third-seeded Lana Mees & Louka Maertens who defeated Anke Coopmans & Noor Augustynen to take the bronze Women’s results and standings A post shared by Belgian Beachvolley Championship (@belgianbeachvolley) The Polish National Beach Volleyball Tour visited Poznan last week Magdalena Saad & Nicole Jochym topped the women’s podium after a hard-fought 2-1 (21-17 15-10) victory over qualifiers Agnieszka Adamek & Aleksandra Gromadowska in the final Top-seeded Aleksandra Zdon & Justyna Tomala Lukaszewska took the bronze after an injury forfeit win of the third-place fixture against another team that emerged from the qualification bracket Women’s results and standings Second-seeded Jaroslaw Lech & Tomasz Jaroszczak mastered a 2-0 (21-15 21-18) sweep of the men’s final against Czechia’s Krystof Jan Oliva & Vaclav Kurka 15-9) comeback against third-seeded Piotr Groszek & Igor Ciemachowski Men’s results and standings Kyiv set the stage for yet another stop on the Ukrainian Beach Volleyball Championship Tour last week second-seeded Danyil Svyrydenko & Maksym Horobets achieved a 2-0 (21-13 21-16) upset of top-seeded Serhii Zubyk & Vitalii Kybenko to top the podium The bronze went to Volodymyr Kushch & Volodymyr Kelbas who also upset third-seeded Andrii Babich & Yehor Nahornyi in a 2-0 (21-15 Men’s results and standings The top two seeds in the women’s bracket also reached the final Valentyna Davidova & Anhelina Khmil mastered a 2-0 (21-18 21-9) victory over Raisa Rylova & Yulia Chernenko Olha Mykhailovska & Kseniia Mazur completed the podium after a 2-1 (16-21 15-9) comeback against Sofiia Kurnikova & Mariia Shkurat in the bronze medal match Women’s results and standings The FIVB is the governing body responsible for all forms of Volleyball on a global level Working closely with national federations and private enterprises to develop Volleyball as a popular media and entertainment sport FIVB Fédération Internationale de Volleyball Château Les Tourelles Edouard-Sandoz 2-4 1006 Lausanne Switzerland Phone: +41 213 453 535 Fax: +41 213 453 545 Learn how to describe the purpose of the image (opens in a new tab) Leave empty if the image is purely decorative Too many automated requests from this network