ABSTRACT
The little town of Stavelot lies nestled among the green rolling hills of eastern Belgium not far from the German border. Nowadays the traveler finds little to remind him of the days when Stavelot was the flourishing capital of a small ecclesiastical principality, for the buildings of the medieval abbey have almost entirely disappeared. The surviving treasures of the abbey, the objects of precious metalwork and the carefully executed codices are dispersed among many libraries and museums of the world. 1 The tanning industry which brought a measure of worldly prosperity to the town's burgers is no longer pursued. Indeed, Stavelot seens best known to the modern world as a consequence of a several months' stay in 1899 by the nineteen-year old poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who wrote most of L'Enchanteur pourrissant here. 2 His sojourn is recalled today by the little Musée Guillaume Appollinaire, which is lodged in the Hôtel de Ville, and by commemorative congresses held in the summers. In the middle ages, however, the abbey of Stavelot, together with its 7nearby satellite Malmédy, played an important role in oultural and artistic life. We must now turn to tho historical ciroumstances that shaped its growth in the centuries of declining antiquity and the early middle ages.
