Riddagshausen Abbey

Riddagshausen Abbey (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.

The abbey early acquired "reichsunmittelbar" status as an Imperial abbey.

It was mediatised in 1569 by Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, when it became a Protestant establishment. 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. [ The seminary was however refounded in 1837 and after a century in various premises in Wolfenbüttel and closure because of World War II, was eventually re-established in Brunswick in 1952, although in the town's former Franciscan friary, not in Riddagshausen Abbey.]

The site, now included within the city of Brunswick, is now mostly a [http://www.bund-bs.de/riddagshausen/riddagshausen.htm nature reserve] and [http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0003276/arboretum_bs.html arboretum] .

The surviving buildings include the [http://www.klosterkirche-riddagshausen.de/ abbey church] and the gate house, now home of the [http://www.braunschweig.de/kultur/museen/zisterziensermuseum.html Cistercian Museum]

Notes

References

* [http://www.riddagshausen.de Riddagshausen: local history and photo gallery]
* [http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/statue/1287/laender/Nieders/Braunschw/aussen/riddagsh.htm Riddagshausen Abbey photo gallery]
* [http://www.ev-zist.de/riddagshausen.htm Riddagshausen Abbey photos]
* [http://www.predigerseminar.predigerseminar-braunschweig.de/html/body_geschichte.html Theological seminary formerly in Riddagshausen Abbey]