Editing Stavelot (section)

==History==
{{main|Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy}}
[[File:Stavelot et Abbaye.JPG|thumb|left|The town and abbey of Stavelot, c. 1735]]
The town grew up around the Abbey of Stavelot, founded ''ca'' 650, out of what had been a [[villa]], by [[Saint Remaclus]] (Saint Remacle). The villa's lands occupied the borderland between the bishoprics of [[Cologne]] and [[Tongeren]]. The Abbey of Stavelot was secularized and demolished at the time of the [[French Revolution]]: of the church just the west end doorway remains, as a free-standing tower.  Two [[cloister]]s — one secular, one for the monks — survive as the courtyards of the brick-and-stone 17th-century domestic ranges, now housing the Museum of the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, and museums devoted to the poet [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], who was a long-term resident, and to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The foundations of the abbey church are presented  as a footprint, with walls and column bases that enable the visitor to visualize the scale of the [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] abbey.

Abbot [[Wibald]] (ruled 1130–58) was one of the greatest patrons of the arts in the 12th century; the [[Stavelot Triptych]] of gilded copper and enamels, which contained two fragments of the [[True Cross]], was produced for the Abbey during his rule (about 1156). The binding of the Stavelot Bible, and the remaining fragments from the [[retable]] (altar screen) at Stavelot are also high points of medieval art.

In the 16th century, the monk [[Jean Delvaux]] claimed to have seen witches and demonic rituals, as he accused several other church officials of engaging in these rituals.

Stavelot was the seat of the [[Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy]], a small independent region of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], ruled by the abbots of Stavelot. The principality was dissolved in 1795 during the French Revolution. At the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815, Stavelot was added to the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]] while [[Malmedy]] was added to the [[Prussian Rhineland]]. In 1830 it became part of [[Belgium]]. (Malmedy would also become a part of Belgium, but not until 1919.)

The town's [[coat of arms]], granted in 1819, is parted [[fess]]wise between Stavelot's founding bishop, and the wolf which in Stavelot's founding legend carried bricks for the building of the Abbey.<ref>[http://www.ngw.nl/int/bel/s/stavelot.htm Coat of arms of Stavelot] on ''Heraldry of the World''</ref>

During the [[Battle of the Bulge]] in [[World War II]], the city was the scene of severe fighting. From December 18–20, 1944, soldiers belonging to [[6th Panzer Army|Sixth Panzer Army's]] [[Joachim Peiper|''Kampfgruppe Peiper'']] armored battle group murdered more than 100 civilians, including women and children, as well as American prisoners of war, in Stavelot and the surrounding area. Peiper and some of his officers were after the war [[Malmedy massacre trial|tried and convicted]] for this [[war crimes|war crime]] along with others perpetrated during the same period.{{cn|date=December 2021}}