Stavelot

Stavelot, an ancient town of Belgium, in the south-east of the province of Liege. Pop. (1904), 5037. Here Charles Martel gained a signal victory over Neustria in 719. A monastery had been established there half a century earlier by St Remade, bishop of Tongres. The prince-abbot of Stavelot exercised secular authority over many towns in the Ambleve and Warche valleys, including Malmedy (now in Prussia), and had a seat in the old German Diet. In 1815 the treaty of Vienna broke up the Stavelot principality, giving half to Prussia and half to the Netherlands. Only the tower of the old Benedic tine abbey remains, and the shrine of St Remade is preserved in the parish church.