page_title: Ter Apel Monastery
section_title: Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Ter Apel Monastery / Restoration
caption_attribution_description: Klooster Ter Apel in Ter Apel/The Netherlands
context_page_description: Ter Apel Monastery is a former monastery in the village of Ter Apel in the northeastern Dutch province of Groningen. It is the only monastery in the larger area of Friesland and Groningen that survived the Reformation in a decent condition, and the only remaining rural monastery from the Middle Ages in the Netherlands. The convent buildings house a museum for monastery and church history and for religious art, as well as two contemporary art galleries. The former lay church of the monastery still functions as a reformed church.
  The monastery is located in the extreme southeast of the province of Groningen on a forested sand ridge along the ancient trade route from Münster to Groningen. For passing travelers and pilgrims, the monastery was a place of hospitality and dedication. Ter Apel is the last monastery founded in Groningen, and of 34 monasteries in the province it is the only one still recognizable as a convent.
context_section_description: Between 1930 and 1933, on the initiative of the city of Groningen, the remaining buildings were carefully preserved and restored, under the direction of city engineer De Vos Nederveen Cappel. On the ground floor, three of the original four wings were retained: the church for secular canons and lay people in the south wing; the chapter house and sacristy in the east wing; and the refectory (now a cafe), the vaulted supplies cellar, the sub-prior and prior's chambers, and the guest accommodations in the north wing. These wings are connected by an ambulatory, surrounding the cloister. The original medieval cloister garden has been replaced with a herb garden; the location of this garden is the only remaining detail in the Netherlands of such a medieval garden.
  Since 1992 Ter Apel Monastery is listed on UNESCO's Top 100 of immovable properties in the Netherlands. In 2000, the construction of a new west wing was begun, designed by Danish architect Johannes Exner; in September 2001 the work was completed.
  More renovations took place in 2007 and 2008, with a subsidy from the European Union. The newly renovated scriptorium features an exhibition of books and manuscripts. Also newly added was a workshop for stained glass. The monastery used to hold an annual chess tournament, the Klooster Internationaal Tournament, and continues to organize an annual medieval festival, which in 2010 attracted some 8000 visitors.
  In 2009, the monastery began publishing books; the first publication was a history of medieval Dutch monasteries, De Middeleeuwse kloostergeschiedenis van de Nederlanden.
caption: The west wing was finished in 2001
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