The abbey of the Poor Clares in Nieuwpoort goes back to 1497. The nuns arrived in Lo in 1492 to take care of the plague victims and the poor sick. The date on the small tower of the Gothic chapel refers to the restoration. The abbey was enlarged in 1654-1655.
When the nuns had built the small tower of the chapel in 1497, the chaplain of the abbey, who had the patronage, considered it too high and took the nuns to court. The judges, real Salomons, decided that the tower could stay but that the nuns, should give the chaplain each year, on the eve of Easter, two chickens, as recognition of his authority.
The small tower was renovated in 1560 and destroyed in 1579. It was replaced by a smaller tower on the chapel itself.
