Production of Moulded Bricks on a Gothic Building Site. The Case of the thirteenth-century Abbeys of The Dunes and Boudelo (Belgium)

While the role of the Cistercian abbeys of The Dunes and Boudelo as pioneers of brick production and brick architecture in medieval Flanders remains up for debate, recent research has shed new light on the brick architecture of both abbeys. Since built remains have either disappeared (Boudelo) or lost all authenticity due to reconstruction (The Dunes), the loose moulded bricks collected at both abbey sites are the only reliable material source for the thirteenth-century building campaigns in brick of The Dunes and Boudelo. Numerous profiled bricks from these abbeys show traces of standardized methods of production, similar to practices used on the building sites of contemporary gothic buildings in stone. As such, the moulded bricks from The Dunes and Boudelo reveal these Cistercian abbeys not so much as pioneers of brick building, but as the first to have fully integrated brick in gothic architectural design.