About the year 925 A.D. Count Dirk I founded a convent for nuns in Egmond. It was to serve as a memorial to Saint Adelbert, one of Saint Willibrord’s companions. Around the year 700 these missionaries from England had spread the Christian faith among the indigenous Frisians.
When Adelbert died he was buried near the dunes (on the present site of the so-called “Adelbertusakker”). Local people built a simple wooden chapel over his grave. His worship continued.
In the year 922 the king of the West-Franks transferred the ownership of this chapel together with its lands to Dirk I. The Count had the remains of Adelbert removed to the convent.
In 970 Count Dirk II decided to replace his father’s wooden convent by a stone abbey for monks. It was finished in 975. Monks arrived from Ghent in Flanders.
The start of the Dutch Revolt (the uprising against the Habsburg King of Spain, 1568-1648) heralded the end of the Abbey.
On 1 May, 1567, the Abbey had already been pillaged by Protestant insurgents who had been driven out of Amsterdam. The end came on 7 June, 1573. Again the Abbey was sacked and this time fire was set to it.
The Abbey was rebuilt in the 1930’s. From then on, the relics of Saint Adelbert have been preserved underneath the altar in this church.