Ahrensbök Charterhouse () was a

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians (), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its own rule, called th ...

monastery, or charterhouse, in

Ahrensbök Ahrensbök (Holsatian: ''Ahrensböök'') is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km northwest of Lübeck, and 45 km southeast of Kiel. History Ahrensbök came int ...

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

, Germany.

History

Monastery

The charterhouse was established in 1397. The estates with which it was endowed reached as far as

Scharbeutz Scharbeutz (, Polabian ''Scorbuze'') is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the Bay of Lübeck (Baltic Sea), approx. 20 km north of Lübeck, and 15 km southeast of Eutin Eu ...

on the

Bay of Lübeck The Bay of Lübeck (, ) is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of the Germany, German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. It forms the southwestern part of the Bay of Mecklenburg. The main port is Travem ...

. During the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

the monastery was secularised, and with its estates fell into the hands of

John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg John the Younger (; ; 25 March 1545 – 9 October 1622) was the duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. Biography John was born on 25 March 1545 at Koldinghus Castle in Jutland, Denmark as the fourth child and third son of King Christian III ...

, in 1584, who had the buildings demolished.

Castle

The building materials were used between 1593 and 1601 for the construction of the castle in Ahrensbök, Schloss Hoppenbrook, which was the principal residence between 1623 and 1636 of the ruler of the newly formed Duchy of

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön The Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (), also ''Schleswig-Holstein-Plön'', ''Holstein-Plön'' or just ''Duchy of Plön'', was a small sub-duchy (''Teilherzogtum'') created by the physical division of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein- ...

Created in 1623 by partition between co-heirs of a larger duchy. The new duchy existed until 1761, when the last duke, Friedrich Karl, died without legitimate surviving male issue. The territory then passed to the

King of Denmark The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional political system, institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe Is ...

, in accordance with a familial agreement which the two monarchs had concluded a few years earlier. while Duke Joachim Ernst I's new castle in

Plön Plön (; ) is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 8,700 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on several smaller lakes, ...

(

Schloss Plön ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

) was under construction. Once Schloss Plön was finished, the ducal residence was moved there from Ahrensbök, leaving Schloss Hoppenbrook as a secondary residence. After the death there in 1740 of Duchess Juliane Luise, widow of

Joachim Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön Joachim Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön (9 May 1668, Magdeburg – 25 January 1722, Plön) (), also known as Joachim Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Plön, was the third Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Plön, a dukedom created by ...

, Schloss Hoppenbrook was demolished. The ''

Rathaus In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

'' of Ahrensbök now stands on its site, in a park in which ditches from the previous castle complex can still be made out.

Monastery church

The only surviving building from the time of the Carthusians is the

Brick Gothic Brick Gothic (, , ) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Baltic region, Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock (though Glacial erratic, ...

St. Mary's church - ''Marienkirche'' - which in fact was begun in the first quarter of the 14th century and thus predates the monastery itself: when the charterhouse was established it was taken over for use as the monastery church. It was extended several times, and in 1400 the polygonal

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

was added. The tower, with an inscribed

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

tablet over the portal, was not added until 1761.

Notes

Sources

* Jarchov, Otto, 1978: ''Die Klostergrundherrschaft Ahrensbök'', in ''Jahrbuch für Heimatkunde'', Eutin 1978, pp. 30–38 * Neugebauer, W., 1957: ''Schönes Holstein'', pp. 84–85. ''

Lübecker Nachrichten The ''Lübecker Nachrichten'' (LN; German for ''Lübeck News'') is a regional daily newspaper in Germany, covering Schleswig-Holstein and western Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is, along with the '' Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag'' and the ' ...

'': Lübeck * Rönnpag, Otto, 1992: ''Das Kartäuserkloster in Ahrensbök'', in ''Jahrbuch für Heimatkunde'', Eutin 1992, pp. 88–92 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahrensbok Charterhouse 1397 establishments in Europe 1390s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1580s disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire Buildings and structures in Ostholstein Carthusian monasteries in Germany Lutheran churches in Schleswig-Holstein Monasteries in Schleswig-Holstein Buildings and structures completed in 1397 Christian monasteries established in the 1390s