Wienhausen Abbey

Wienhausen Abbey or Convent () near Wietze in Lower Saxony, Germany, is a community of Evangelical Lutheran women, which until the Reformation was a Cistercian nunnery. The abbey owns significant artworks and artifacts, including a collection of tapestries and the earliest surviving example of a type of eyeglasses.
==History==
The abbey was established in Wienhausen, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the town of Celle, on the bank of the Aller, in or about 1230 by Agnes von Landsberg, daughter-in-law of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. According to the Wienhausen town chronicle, this was the relocation of a monastic foundation made 10 years previously on a site at Nienhagen several kilometers away, which was moved because it had been built on marshland.
In 1233 the foundation of the nunnery here was officially confirmed by Konrad II of Riesenberg, bishop of Hildesheim, who transferred to the new abbey the archdeaconry church that had stood in Wienhausen since the mid 11th century, and the tithes of several villages. The nuns lived according to the Cistercian ruleMonastic Matrix, University of Southern California, accessed 20 April 2008 although it is unclear to what extent they were ever formally part of the Cistercian hierarchy.
In 1469 the abbey came under the influence of the reformist Windesheim Congregation and were obliged to tighten up their Cistercian practice; one side-effect of the reform was that the then abbess, Katharina von Hoya, was removed to another nunnery.
In the 16th century, Duke Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg enforced the Reformation in his duchy. Despite the opposition of the entire community, the nunnery was transformed from a Roman Catholic into a Lutheran Protestant establishment in 1531, after the Duke had broken the resistance of the community by the demolition of the provostry and most of the chapels in the church, and the confiscation of the provostry property, which formed a substantial part of the abbey's income. The destroyed buildings were rebuilt 19 years later (in about 1550) as half-timbered structures. In 1587, the first officially Protestant abbess was installed, and in 1616 the community stopped wearing Cistercian habits, although it had a reputation for secret leanings to Catholicism for many years afterwards. 
==Architecture==
Most of the historic buildings, in the style known as Brick Gothic, are well-preserved. East of the church are a water mill and the farm building. Directly north of the church and at right angles to it are the two conventual building ranges: one dates from the Middle Ages, while the one to the east is a post-Reformation half-timbered building of about 1550. Between them is a two-storey cloister, a Brick Gothic masterpiece.
The church consists of two parts: the original Romanesque 11th century church that belonged to the archdeaconry once based here, that predates the foundation of the nunnery, and originally had a tower that was demolished, in keeping with Cistercian practice, when the abbey was first established here; and a Gothic church built onto the west end of the earlier structure, which comprises the nuns' private chapel (Nonnenchor) on the upper floor and the strangers' church or pilgrims' hall (Pilgersaal) on the ground floor. The Romanesque and the Gothic parts of the building are today separated by a wooden partition wall and are used independently.
Completed in the 14th century, the nuns' chapel is remarkable even among Gothic places of worship for its intricate decorations. The ceiling and walls are completely covered with biblical images and ornaments, which portrayed, among other subjects, the Creation, and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,and his reign in New Jerusalem. Several artifacts were discovered during a renovation in 1953, including the world's oldest preserved rivet spectacles which date back to the 14th or 15th century.Kloster Wienhausen: Major Center for Culture and Religion - Home of the World’s Earliest EyeglassesRivet Spectacles - The Wienhausen find
The abbey is known for its collection of Gothic tapestries from the 14th and 15th centuries. Each year following Pentecost, the tapestries are on public display. Subjects include both Christian and secular themes, e.g. the legend of Tristan and Isolde, several saints' stories (including Saints Thomas, Anne and Elizabeth), as well as the Mirror of Human Salvation. The art treasures are maintained and displayed by the members of the community.
Today, with several other women's Lutheran religious houses in the area, collectively known as the Lüneburger Klöster, Wienhausen is under the administration of the Hanover Klosterkammer, a division of the Lower Saxony Department of Science and Culture.Homepage of the Klosterkammer Hannover 
==Images==
Image:Kloster Wienhausen Bruecke.jpg|
Image:Kloster_Wienhausen_2.jpg|
Image:Kloster Wienhausen Muehle.jpg|
==List of abbesses==
name 	from	until
Eveza 	1230	1241
Benigna 	1241	1243
Margaretha I 	1243	1245
Elisabeth I von Wenden 	1245	1270
Elisabeth II 	1270	1286
Gerburg 	1286	1295
Germod 	1295	1301
Margaretha II von Schöningen 	1301	1318
Margaretha III Bock 	1318	1319
Luthgard I 	1319	1325
Margaretha IV 	1325	1328
Luthgard II von Braunschweig 	1328	1338
Jutta von Braunschweig 	1338	1343
Luthgard III von Delmenhorst 	1343	1359
Elisabeth III von Braunschweig 	1359	1386
Mechthild von SachsenDaughter of Eric II of Saxe-Lauenburg.	1386	1405
Olgard von Marenholz 	1405	1422
Katharina von Hoya 	1422	1469
Susanna Poltstock 	1470	1501
Katharina II von Remstede 	1501	1549
Dorothea Spörken 	1549	1565
Anna von Langeln 	1565	1587
Katharina von Langeln 	1587	1609
Christina Havekost 	1609	1644
Anna von Hohnhorst 	1644	1670
Margaretha Walters 	1670	1679
Anna Katharina von Wehlse 	1679	1685
Anna Engel Maria von Garmsen 	1685	1723
Anna Maria von Honhorst 	1723	1755
Maria Anna Christiana von der Wense 	1756	1767
Sophia Charlotte von Hohnhorst 	1767	1788
Margarete Dorothee von Taube 	1788	1793
Marie Veronica von Pufendorf 	1793	1816
Margarete Dorothee Luise von Vogt 	1816	1820
Justine Frederike Werner 	1821	1825
Luise Sophie Juliane Eleonore Ritmeier 	1825	1865
Wilhelmine Fischer 	1865	1881
Jenny Kern 	1881	1920
Marie Deneke 	1920	1926
Maria Brandis 	1927	1934
Bertha Mühry 	1934	1950
Luise Fredrichs 	1951	1978
Ruth Eckhardt 	1978	1982
Hedwig Thierfelder 	1982	1989
Mechtild von Döhren 	1990	1998
Renate von Randow 	1998	
==Notes==
== References ==
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==External links==
* Wienhausen municipal website: page on Kloster Wienhausen 
* Eyeglasses Through the Ages
* The Invention of Spectacles
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Category:1230s architecture
Category:1550s architecture
Category:1230 establishments
Category:1531 establishments
Category:Monasteries in Lower Saxony
Category:Cistercian nunneries in Germany
Category:Brick Gothic
Category:Lutheran women's religious houses
Category:Lüneburg Heath
de:Kloster Wienhausen