Medingen is a village in the borough of
Bad Bevensen
Bad Bevensen (West Low German: ''Bemsen'') is a town in the north of the district Uelzen in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated to the east of the Lüneburg Heath (''Lüneburger Heide''). The Ilmenau river, a tributary of the Elbe, flows thro ...
in the German state of
Lower Saxony. In the 14th century it was called ''Zellensen''.
In the 17th century a monastic farm estate known as ''Klosterhof Medingen'' (Medingen Monastery Estate) where, 50 years ago, a
Trakehner stud was established.
Medingen Abbey
In 1228 the
convent was founded as a branch of the
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
nunnery at
Wolmirstedt (north of Magdeburg). In 1336 it was permanently established in Medingen. The monastery was originally built in the
Brick Gothic
Brick Gothic (german: Backsteingotik, pl, Gotyk ceglany, nl, Baksteengotiek) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resourc ...
style.
The majority of nuns were unmarried daughters of
Lüneburg patrician families who joined the convent with large household staff and so increased the numbers living at the convent. Over the course of time the monastery was given rights to the
Lüneburg Saltworks The Lüneburg Saltworks (german: Lüneburger Saline) was a saline in the German town of Lüneburg
Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ' ...
, to taxes, mills and shipping on the
River Ilmenau
Ilmenau is a river south of Hamburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
The Ilmenau originates in the Lüneburg Heath, south of Uelzen, as confluence of the rivers Gerdau (river), Gerdau and Stederau in , a district of Uelzen. It is a left tributary of t ...
.
In the early 16th century, in its heyday, the monastery was home to over 100 nuns.
In 1524, in the wake of the
Reformation, the lord over the area, Duke
Ernest ''the Confessor'' of Brunswick-Lüneburg issued the decree to transform it into a
Lutheran establishment. The convent opposed this for more than 30 years in the "Nun's War" (''Nonnenkrieg''); the abbess had publicly burned the Lutheran Bible. In 1539 seized the monastery's property and had part of it torn down. In 1555, after the Lutheran creed was accepted the monastery was given some of its property back. In 1559 it was converted into a
Lutheran women's convent.
In 1781 the buildings of the old monastery burnt down, apart from the brewery (''Brauhaus''). By 1787 it had been rebuilt, mainly in
late baroque, but partly
neoclassical style. There are two long convent wings with the church in the centre.
The convent has been run by abbesses right up to the present day. Medingen Abbey is one of the ''
Lüneklöster'' that is managed by the monastic chamber in
Hanover under the legal supervision of the lady president.
External links
Bad Bevensen home page with information about the monasteryKlosterhof Medingen Trakehner Stud
Lüneburg Heath
Uelzen (district)
{{Lüneburg-geo-stub