Nydala Abbey ( sv, Nydala kloster) was a

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 ...

monastery in the province of

Småland Småland () is a historical province () in southern Sweden. Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name Småland literally means ''Small Lands''. The Latinized fo ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, near the lake Rusken. Although the abbey ceased to operate in the 16th century, its church was renovated and converted into a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

church during the 17th century and is still in use. The church belongs to the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...

and is part of the

Diocese of Växjö The Diocese of Växjö ( sv, Växjö stift) is one of the 13 dioceses or regional units of the Lutheran Church of Sweden. It was also a former Roman Catholic bishopric. Lutheran diocese Diocese of Växjö is situated in southern Sweden and inclu ...

History

Nydala (from Swedish ''ny'', meaning ''new'', and ''dal'', meaning ''valley'') was called ''Sancta Maria de Nova Valle'' or just ''Nova Vallis'' in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. It was founded in 1143 by

Cistercian monks 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 B ...

sent out from

Clairvaux Abbey Clairvaux Abbey (, ; la, Clara Vallis) was a Cistercian monastery in Ville-sous-la-Ferté, from Bar-sur-Aube. The original building, founded in 1115 by St. Bernard, is now in ruins; the present structure dates from 1708. Clairvaux Abbey was a ...

in France. Together with

Alvastra Alvastra () is a small village in Ödeshög Municipality in eastern Sweden. It is known for being the seat of the Cistercian Alvastra Abbey in the Middle Ages, established in 1143 by French monks. After the Swedish Lutheran reformation in the 1530 ...

and

Roma Abbey Roma Abbey ( sv, Roma kloster) is a ruined Cistercian abbey and a crown estate in Roma on the Swedish island of Gotland. The abbey was built in the 12th century. After the Reformation, its lands were confiscated by the Crown and subsequently turn ...

, it is one of the oldest Cistercian abbeys in Sweden. It is furthermore unique in Sweden in that the Cistercian ideal of almost complete isolation was respected: the abbey was built in an area away from any settlement. The abbey took slightly over a hundred years to complete, and the church was not inaugurated until 1266. Rather little is known about the abbey's active period during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. It has been described as "once rich and powerful". As late as 1503, a letter of protection for the abbey was issued by the

Pope Julius II Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...

. In 1521, the King Christian II lodged in the abbey during his return journey from Stockholm and the

Stockholm Bloodbath The Stockholm Bloodbath ( sv, Stockholms blodbad; da, Det Stockholmske Blodbad) was a trial that led to a series of executions in Stockholm between 7 and 9 November 1520. The event is also known as the Stockholm massacre. The events occurred af ...

. Although treated well by the monks, on leaving the abbey he had the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

and five of the monks drowned in the

Nydala Abbey Bloodbath Nydala Abbey Bloodbath ( Swedish: ''Blodbadet i Nydala kloster'') in Nydala Abbey, Sweden, on 2 February 1521 was the execution of the abbot and several monks at Nydala Abbey performed by the Danish army on the orders of Christian II of Denmark dur ...

, and plundered the church. The event could possibly be explained by the fact that the abbey may have been run and populated by members of the

Swedish nobility The Swedish nobility ( sv, Adeln eller Ridderskapet och Adeln) has historically been a legally and/or socially privileged class in Sweden, and part of the so-called ''frälse'' (a derivation from Old Swedish meaning ''free neck''). The archaic term ...

that formed part of the resistance against Danish rule. Soon after, in 1527 during the

Swedish Reformation The Reformation in Sweden is generally regarded as having begun in 1527 during the reign of King Gustav I of Sweden, but the process was slow and did not end definitively until the Uppsala Synod of 1593 and the following War against Sigismund, with ...

, King Gustavus Vasa appropriated the abbey and confiscated its remaining valuables in accordance with the

Reduction of Gustav I of Sweden The Reduction of Gustav I of Sweden, was an important reform during the Protestant Swedish Reformation, in which king Gustav I of Sweden ordered a reduction in church property and the return of land to the crown, making the national church dependent ...

. The Swedish Crown confiscated its lands, and from some of these were formed a Crown Estate manor which would later become Nydala Manor, located nearby. The local peasants resisted these changes and murdered the first administrator that the Crown sent to take over the abbey. The abbey suffered again during the

Northern Seven Years' War The Northern Seven Years' War (also known as the ''Nordic Seven Years' War'', the ''First Northern War'' or the ''Seven Years War in Scandinavia'') was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and a coalition of Denmark–Norway, Lübeck, and Polan ...

, when it was burnt and pillaged by Danish troops in 1568. During the 1680s, parts of the medieval church were renovated and began to be used as a Lutheran parish church. The church was re-inaugurated in 1688. In 1952 the former gatehouse chapel of the abbey, the so-called "farmers' church", was renovated. The main church was renovated in 1964–67.

Architecture

The presently visible church consist of the easternmost parts of the medieval abbey church. The western part was torn down during the renovation during the 17th century. Apart from the original

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

, a northern and southern chapel also remain of the original church. One of these have been converted into a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually located ...

. Two further such chapels have disappeared during the course of time. The church was built according to the ideas and ideals of

Cistercian architecture Cistercian architecture is a style of architecture associated with the churches, monasteries and abbeys of the Roman Catholic Cistercian Order. It was heavily influenced by Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), who believed that churches should ...

as developed in France. It was from the outset characterised by simplicity and austerity in form and decoration. The building material is grey

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

. Especially the eastern end of the church retains several fine details and displays much of its original medieval character. Internally, many of the church fittings date from the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era, including the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

and the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

. The

pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

s and the organ platform are decorated by

Pehr Hörberg Pehr Hörberg (January 31, 1746, in Virestad parish in Småland, Sweden – January 24, 1816, in Risinge in Östergötland, Sweden) was a Sweden, Swedish artist, painter and musician. In 1769 he married the maid Maria Eriksdotter and they had t ...

. The church originally formed one side of a quadrangle or courtyard surrounded on the other sides by buildings of which nothing but a few ruins remains today, and the abbey was surrounded by a wall. The aforementioned gatehouse chapel still survives. Another building nearby which may be medieval may have contained the abbey stables. The wooden

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

was built during the early 18th century. In 2004, a project was initiated to reconstruct a medieval abbey garden next to the church.

Nydala Manor

Nydala Manor is located just north of the former abbey complex. The first manor was built around 1650, but in its present shape the building dates from 1790, built in a so-called

Gustavian style Gustavian style was the leading style in Swedish architecture, decor and crafts during the Gustavian era, inspired by French Neoclassicism. The style was established in the 1780s, and is named after King Gustav III of Sweden Sweden, for ...

. The manor is one of the finest representatives of the style in

Jönköping County Jönköping County ( sv, Jönköpings län) is a county or '' län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötland, Kalmar and Kronoberg. The total county population was 356,291 inhabitants in Sept ...

References

External links

nydalaklostertradgard.seWebsite of the project to create a medieval garden by the abbey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nydala Cistercian monasteries in Sweden 1520s disestablishments Christian monasteries established in the 12th century 1143 establishments in Europe 12th-century establishments in Sweden Medieval Sweden Monasteries dissolved under the Swedish Reformation