Riddagshausen Abbey (German : Kloster Riddagshausen) was a Cistercian monastery just outside the city of Brunswick in Germany.
It was founded as Marienzelle by Ludolf the Wend, a ministerialis of Henry the Lion and steward of Brunswick, and settled in 1145 by monks from Amelungsborn Abbey. Henry endowed the new foundation in 1146 with the neighbouring village of Riddagshausen, from which it took its name. [1]
The abbey early acquired reichsunmittelbar status as an Imperial abbey. [1]
It was mediatised in 1569 by Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, when it became a Protestant establishment. [1] From 1690 it was also the home of a prestigious Lutheran seminary for training of preachers, the first in Germany. The religious community and the seminary were dissolved in 1809. [2] [3]
The site, now included within the city of Brunswick, in the district of Wabe-Schunter-Beberbach, is now mostly a nature reserve [4] and arboretum. [5] The nature reserve Riddagshäuser Teiche is designated as Important Bird Area [6] and Special Protection Area. [7]
The surviving buildings include the abbey church [8] and the gatehouse, now home of the Cistercian Museum. [9]
Braunschweig or Brunswick is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser. In 2016, it had a population of 250,704 and in 2024, it has a population of 272,417.
Maulbronn Monastery is a former Cistercian abbey and ecclesiastical state in the Holy Roman Empire located at Maulbronn, Baden-Württemberg. The monastery complex, one of the best-preserved in Europe, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
Bursfelde Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery located in Bursfelde, a hamlet which for administrative purposes is included in the municipality of nearby Hannoversch Münden in Lower Saxony, Germany. Today the abbey church and its estate cover a site of approximately 300 hectares which is administered by the Klosterkammer Hannover, a body that operates under the auspices of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Arts and the Sciences to look after reassigned or disused ecclesiastical buildings and other heritage properties in the region. The legal owner of the Bursfelde Monastery Complex is the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover.
St. Ludger's Abbey was a former monastery of the Benedictine Order in Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, founded by Saint Ludger around 800. Until it was secularised in 1802 it was an Imperial Abbey, with sovereignty over the whole town of Helmstedt until the 15th century.
Loccum Abbey is a Lutheran monastery, formerly a Cistercian abbey, in the town of Rehburg-Loccum, near Lake Steinhude, Lower Saxony, Germany.
Baindt Abbey, otherwise the Imperial Abbey of Baindt, was a Cistercian nunnery in Baindt in the district of Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Walkenried Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located in the village of Walkenried in Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1127 on the southern rim of the Harz mountain range, the remnants of the monastic complex since 2010 are part of the Upper Harz Water Regale World Heritage Site.
Oberschönenfeld Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery in Gessertshausen in Bavaria, Germany.
Heggbach Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in Heggbach, now part of the municipality of Maselheim in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Schöntal Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Schöntal in the district of Hohenlohe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is famous as one of the most impressive pieces of Baroque architecture in northern Württemberg and is now used by the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart as a retreat and training centre.
Gandersheim Abbey is a former house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in the present town of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded in 852 by Count Liudolf of Saxony and his wife, Oda, progenitors of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.
Wienhausen Abbey or Convent near Celle in Lower Saxony, Germany, is a community of Evangelical Lutheran women, which until the Reformation was a Cistercian Catholic nunnery. The abbey owns significant artworks and artifacts, including a collection of tapestries and the earliest surviving example of a type of eyeglasses.
Amelungsborn Abbey, also Amelunxborn Abbey, is a Lutheran monastery in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located near Negenborn and Stadtoldendorf, in the Landkreis of Holzminden in the Weserbergland. It was the second oldest Cistercian foundation in Lower Saxony, Germany, after Walkenried Abbey. It survived the Reformation by becoming Lutheran, and with Loccum Abbey, also previously Cistercian, is one of the only two Lutheran monasteries in Germany with an uninterrupted tradition. The abbey church, St. Mary's, is also the parish church of the abbey's former estate villages Negenborn and Holenberg.
Nydala Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in the province of Småland, Sweden, near the lake Rusken. Although the abbey ceased to operate in the 16th century, its church was renovated and converted into a Protestant church during the 17th century and is still in use. The church belongs to the Church of Sweden and is part of the Diocese of Växjö.
Michaelstein Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, now the home of the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein - Musikinstitut für Aufführungspraxis, near the town of Blankenburg in the Harz in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.
Mariental Abbey, in the present-day municipality of Mariental in Lower Saxony, Germany, is a former Cistercian monastery founded in 1138, now used and owned by a Lutheran congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick.
Wabe-Schunter-Beberbach is a Stadtbezirk (borough) in the north-eastern and eastern part of Braunschweig, Germany. The district is named after the river Schunter and its tributaries Wabe and Beberbach.
Sonnefeld Abbey is a former Cistercian nunnery in Sonnefeld in Bavaria, Germany. The former abbey church, or Klosterkirche, is now an Evangelical Lutheran parish church.
Paul Francke was a German Renaissance architect, most notable as director of works for the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg from 1564 until his death in 1615. His works include the Juleum Novum in Helmstedt, the Marienkirche in Wolfenbüttel and the Burganlage in Erichsburg.
Fürstenzell Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Fürstenzell, in Bavaria, in the diocese of Passau. It was a daughter monastery of the Aldersbach monastery from the filiation of the Morimond primary abbey - Ebrach monastery.