Riddagshausen Abbey
Encyclopedia
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
It was founded as Marienzelle by Ludolf the Wend, a ministerialis
Ministerialis
Ministerialis ; a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally servitor, agent, in a broad range of senses...
of Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion
Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....
and steward of Brunswick, and settled in 1145 by monks from Amelungsborn Abbey
Amelungsborn Abbey
Amelungsborn Abbey, also Amelunxborn Abbey near Negenborn and Stadtoldendorf, in the Landkreis of Holzminden in the Weserbergland, was the second oldest Cistercian foundation in Lower Saxony, Germany, after Walkenried 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 site, now included within the city of Brunswick, is now mostly a nature reserve and arboretum.
The surviving buildings include the abbey church and the gate house, now home of the Cistercian Museum