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Founded: 1193Category: Religious sites in Germany
Historical period: Hohenstaufen Dynasty (Germany)
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Bergen auf Rügen Abbey was a monastery for Cistercian nuns. It lasted from the end of the 12th century to the early 16th century as a Roman-Catholic monastery and then, until 1945, as an Evangelical aristocratic nunnery.
The Principality of Rügen belonged to the Bishopric of Roskilde since its conquest by the Danes in 1168, Bishop Absalon of Lund being responsible for introducing the territory to Christianity. In 1193, Prince Jaromar I of Rügen founded a nunnery near the fort (Burgwall) on the Rugard, and had it consecrated as St. Mary's Church which had originally been planned as a palace church (Pfalzkirche). The monastery was a branch of St. Mary's Abbey, Roskilde, from which the first Benedictine sisters came. When the two monasteries transferred to the Cistercian order is not known. A confirmation of the Cistercian ordinances and possessions was made by Pope Innocent IV in 1250.
On its foundation, Jaromar I granted the monastery with extensive, but scattered, estates, which were mostly on the island of Rügen. Until the mid-14th century are only a few donations by his followers or internal documents of the monastery known. After that it was increasingly involved in the purchase of whole parishes, such as in 1344, which consisted of 14 villages, and in 1357 the estates of Arnold Pape, the goods of John of Kiel in Wieck, Dranske and Goos.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.