King Adolf of Nassau and his wife Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg in a mural at Klarenthal Abbey, drawing by H. Dors, 1632
Klarenthal Abbey was established in 1298 by Count Adolf of Nassau (born before 1250; died July 2, 1298), who was elected King of Germany on May 5, 1292. The monastery was to serve as a tomb for the House of Nassau, and Adolf's wife Queen Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg and many of his descendants were buried here. This continued until 1370, when, after the division of the Countship of Nassau, the preferred burial places became the central churches of the cities of residence of that particular branch of the House of Nassau. In 1429, Count Philipp I of Nassau-Weilburg-Saarbrücken was buried at Klarenthal. He was the last reigning member of the House of Nassau to be buried there.
The monastery belonged to the woman's Order of Poor Ladies, also known as the Poor Clares, which was founded on St. Clare of Assisi, from which is derived the name Klarenthal. Many noble women of the surrounding area joined the monastery, in particular from the Rheingau and Rheinhessen.
During the siege of Wiesbaden by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1318, Klarenthal Abbey was looted and destroyed. It was rebuilt, however, in the following years. One hundred years later, under the abbesses Paze of Lindau (1412?–1422) and Countess Agnes of Hanau (1446? – 1450), the monastery reached its heyday. Economically consolidated, it could also expand and decorate the ensemble of its monastic buildings. The cloister was redesigned and the church partly painted.
The Mainz Diocesan Feud (1461–1462) presented a setback. Although the monastery was unaffected in the conflict, many of the properties from which the monastery's income was generated were destroyed. The monastery eventually recovered economically.
In the late 15th century and early 16th century, however, Klarenthal Abbey found it increasingly difficult to attract young women. The local gentry, from which most of the nuns once came, found itself falling behind the middle class economically and no longer wanted to pay the high entrance fees for admission to the monastery. Also the reputation of monasteries suffered during the late Middle Ages, so that entry into a monastery had lower social prestige. The medieval idea faded that a member of a family in a monastery performed a valuable service by praying for the deceased of her family. The Protestant Reformation, which turned its back on the monastic life, sounded its death knell in the areas where it prevailed, legitimizing the seizure of the monasteries by the local lord.
From 1553 Count Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg began to take steps to dissolve the monastery. He transferred the documents and records stored there into his own possession. By no longer issuing the necessary permits, he prevented the monastery from receiving novices or choosing a new abbess. He adopted a policy of allowing its membership to decline through attrition. In 1559, the remaining five nuns accepted the Count's proposal to leave the monastery in exchange for appropriate compensation. This, however, did not legally abolish the monastery since, according to the Augsburg Interim, the Count needed the Pope's consent. Nevertheless, the monastery was secularized in 1559.
Later use
Initially, the assets of Klarenthal Abbey were used to assist the poor, run by priests and teachers paid by the Countship. In 1607 the buildings were transformed into a state hospital by Count Louis II of Nassau-Weilburg. In 1632 or 1650, the epitaphs of the Counts of Nassau and their relatives interred at Klarenthal were dismantled and set up in the Mauritius Church (Wiesbaden)[de], where they would later be destroyed in the Great Fire of 1850.
In the Thirty Years War, the buildings of Klarenthal Abbey were heavily damaged. The church was without a roof, declined to ruin, and was eventually demolished in 1756. During a time of Catholic rule during the war, the Kloster was once again used as monastery, this time of the Jesuit order. But in 1650, it was again yielded.
In 1706 it became a factory for glass. This operation existed until 1723, when a fire severely damaged the facility. From 1724, it then became a paper mill. This lasted until 1840 when another fire damaged the building and this use ended. In 1730, the small settlement, which had formed around the factory, erected a chapel, which was overseen by a pastor from Wiesbaden.
Remains
Of the original monastery buildings, little remains visible after to the repeated destruction. The present buildings partially use the foundations of the monastery buildings and in some places the walls preserve medieval stonework, including some of the arcades of the cloister. Also, spolia can be seen in various places. Anything else remaining of the original monastery is invisible to all but archaeologists. On the fields formerly belonging to Klarenthal Abbey, the housing development of Klarenthal was built in 1966, taking its name from the former monastery.
Adolf was the count of Nassau from about 1276 and the elected king of Germany from 1292 until his deposition by the prince-electors in 1298. He was never crowned by the pope, which would have secured him the imperial title. He was the first physically and mentally healthy ruler of the Holy Roman Empire ever to be deposed without a papal excommunication. Adolf died shortly afterwards in the Battle of Göllheim fighting against his successor Albert of Habsburg.
Walram II of Nassau, German: Walram II. von Nassau, was Count of Nassau and is the ancestor of the Walramian branch of the House of Nassau.
Gerlach I of Nassau, Count of Nassau in Wiesbaden, Idstein, Weilburg, and Weilnau.
The Duchy of Nassau was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what is now the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine and later of the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct, was the House of Nassau. The duchy was named for its historical core city, Nassau, although Wiesbaden rather than Nassau was its capital. In 1865, the Duchy of Nassau had 465,636 inhabitants. After being occupied and annexed into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866 following the Austro-Prussian War, it was incorporated into the Province of Hesse-Nassau. The area today is a geographical and historical region, Nassau, and Nassau is also the name of the Nassau Nature Park within the borders of the former duchy.
Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg was the Queen consort of Adolf of Nassau, King of Germany.
Klarenthal is a borough of Wiesbaden, capital of the federal state of Hesse, Germany. The community, situated on the slopes of the Taunus Mountains, was planned by architect and urban planner Ernst May in the style of a commuter town in the early 1960s. It was built on free arable land between the railway line to Bad Schwalbach and Klarenthaler Straße, overlooking the city center of Wiesbaden proper. Klarenthal consists mainly of large multi-family homes and residential high-rise buildings, surrounded with much green space, as well as many townhouses. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on September 11, 1964 and the first residents moved in in late February 1966. Today, over 10,000 people live there.
Walram I of Nassau, German: Walram I. von Nassau, also known as Walram I of Laurenburg, was Count of Nassau and is the oldest Nassau whose ancestorship is absolutely certain. He managed to expand his territory considerably during his reign. He took part in the Third Crusade.
The Countship of Isenburg-Limburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries, based around the city of Limburg an der Lahn in modern Hesse, Germany.
Gerlach IV of Isenburg-Limburg, also known as Gerlach I of Limburg, was from 1258 Count of (Isenburg-)Limburg, ruling over the town of Limburg an der Lahn and some villages in its hinterlands. He was the founder of the short-lived House of Limburg.
John I of Isenburg-Limburg, "The blind Lord" was from 1289 Count of (Isenburg-) Limburg and the head of the House of Limburg. The core territory of the Lordship of Limburg consisted of the city of Limburg an der Lahn and several surrounding villages.
Gerlach V of Isenburg-Limburg, also called Gerlach II "the Elder" of Limburg, was Count of Isenburg-Limburg. He reigned between 1312 and 1355 as Lord of Limburg an der Lahn, and the head of the House of Limburg. The chronicler Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen describes him, in his pre-1402 Limburger Chronicle, as a virtuous nobleman and a bright poet in German and Latin.
The Lahngau was a medieval territory comprising the middle and lower Lahn River valley in the current German states of Hesse and (partially) Rhineland-Palatinate. The traditional names of the Gau are Loganahe Pagus or Pagus Logenensis.
Mechtild of Nassau, german Mechthild von Nassau, was the youngest child of Adolf, King of the Romans and his wife Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg. Mechtild is also known as Matilda of Nassau. She was Duchess consort of Bavaria, by her marriage to Rudolf I, Duke of Upper Bavaria.
Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg was a Count of the Nassau-Weilburg. Among his major achievements were the introduction of the Reformation, the foundation of the Gymnasium Philippinum in Weilburg and the start of the construction of Schloss Weilburg.
Lord Ulrich III of Hanau was Lord of Hanau from 1346 until his death. He was also governor in the Wetterau.
Adolph I, Count of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein was a son of Count Gerlach I and Agnes of Hesse. In 1344, his father abdicated in favor of his sons. They ruled jointly until 1355, then divided their inheritance:
Anna of Isenburg-Büdingen was a German noblewoman. She was a daughter of Count Louis II of Isenburg-Büdingen and Countess Maria of Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein.
Kloster Gnadenthal is the name of a former Cistercian nunnery dating back to 1235 which was changed to a Protestant Stift for women in 1564, and became the centre of the ecumenical community Jesus-Bruderschaft in 1969. It is part of Hünfelden, Hesse, Germany.
Marienstatt Abbey is a Cistercian monastery and a pilgrimage site in Streithausen, Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, in the Nister valley near Hachenburg.
Adelheid of Katzenelnbogen, German: Adelheid von Katzenelnbogen was a countess from the House of Katzenelnbogen and, by marriage, countess of Nassau. She is a direct ancestor of the Walramiam branch of the House of Nassau and of the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg.
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