The abbey was founded around 1196 by its patroness Gisèle, with the support of the monastic community of Villers Abbey (in present-day Walloon Brabant), following the Cistercian rule.
Henry I, Duke of Brabant, donated the Ixelles Ponds, a water mill, and the domain of the monastery.
The Abbaye de la Chambre de Notre-Dame ("Abbey of the Chamber of Our Lady"), hence La Cambre in short form, remained under the spiritual guidance of Villers, one of the most important Cistercian communities.

Saint Boniface of Brussels (1182–1260), a native of Ixelles, canon of Saint Gudula (future cathedral of Brussels), who taught theology at the University of Paris and was made bishop of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1231, lived for eighteen years in the abbey and is interred in the church.
The mystic leper Saint Alix lived in the community at the same epoch.

During the numerous wars of religion of the 16th and 17th centuries, the abbey was largely destroyed, but it was rebuilt in the 18th century in the French form it largely retains.

It was suppressed during the French Revolution and sold as national property in 1796.
The abbey was founded around 1196 by its patroness Gisèle, with the support of the monastic community of Villers Abbey (in present-day Walloon Brabant), following the Cistercian rule. Henry I, Duke of Brabant, donated the Ixelles Ponds, a water mill, and the domain of the monastery. The Abbaye de la Chambre de Notre-Dame ("Abbey of the Chamber of Our Lady"), hence La Cambre in short form, remained under the spiritual guidance of Villers, one of the most important Cistercian communities.
Saint Boniface of Brussels (1182–1260), a native of Ixelles, canon of Saint Gudula (future cathedral of Brussels), who taught theology at the University of Paris and was made bishop of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1231, lived for eighteen years in the abbey and is interred in the church. The mystic leper Saint Alix lived in the community at the same epoch.
During the numerous wars of religion of the 16th and 17th centuries, the abbey was largely destroyed, but it was rebuilt in the 18th century in the French form it largely retains. 
It was suppressed during the French Revolution and sold as national property in 1796.
La Cambre Abbey