Schönau Abbey in Nassau: A Former Benedictine Monastery in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page14 sections
History
Schönau Abbey in Nassau is a former Benedictine abbey in Germany, located on the outskirts of Strüth in the Rhein-Lahn district of Rhineland-Palatinate. Founded by the early House of Nassau, it began as a Benedictine institution in the twelfth century and was built in the Romanesque style between 1126 and 1145. The abbey belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limburg and is also called Schönau Abbey of Nassau or Schönau Abbey in the Taunus, names that distinguish it from Schönau Abbey in Baden-Württemberg.
Foundation and Benedictine development
Around 1117, Dudo, Count of Laurenburg and founder of the House of Nassau, established a Benedictine priory on his estate at Lipporn. The Benedictines followed the Rule of Saint Benedict, a Catholic monastic tradition governing communal religious life. The priory was dedicated to Saint Florin of Koblenz and depended on All Saints Abbey in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Around 1126, Dudo’s son Rupert I, Count of Laurenburg and Vogt of Lipporn, made the foundation an independent abbey. A Vogt was a secular protector or administrator who defended and represented a church institution and its lands. Hildelin, a man of noble birth, became the first abbot. Construction progressed slowly because the surrounding area was rugged and uncultivated, and Hildelin sought help from the Bishop of Trier, who provided the nearby church of Welterode.
Schönau developed as a Benedictine double monastery, with separate communities of monks and nuns. The small nuns’ convent was dissolved in 1606 after only a few sisters remained. By 1340, the abbey had considerable economic and political strength. Frankfurt am Main could promise it armed men and wagons, while during the fourteenth century the abbey was able to recruit mercenaries and arrange transport to defend its interests.
Elisabeth of Schönau and the Reformation
Elisabeth of Schönau, a twelfth-century Benedictine nun and visionary later venerated as a saint, lived and worked at the abbey from 1141 until her death in 1164. She was buried in the abbey church. Her brother Eckbert of Schönau entered the men’s monastery in 1155 or 1156 and died there in 1184.
In 1493, Johannes von Schwelm became abbot and arranged for Elisabeth’s remains to be moved from their earlier burial place beside the altar of the Holy Virgins in the chancel to a side chapel. The communities around the abbey, including Strüth, Welterod, and Lipporn, became Protestant between 1541 and 1544 during the Reformation, a movement that divided Western Christianity and altered religious institutions across Europe. Schönau Abbey remained Catholic.
War, destruction, and Baroque rebuilding
Swedish and Hessian troops attacked Schönau between 1631 and 1635 during the Thirty Years’ War, the major European conflict of 1618 to 1648 that combined religious, dynastic, and political struggles across the Holy Roman Empire. Swedish soldiers expelled the monks, plundered the monastery, broke open Elisabeth’s grave, and scattered her bones. Only part of her skull, the skullcap, was rescued.
A major fire in 1723 destroyed the church and monastery. Reconstruction in the following years gave the complex its surviving Baroque appearance, while the Gothic chancel remained from the earlier buildings. The chapel dedicated to Saint Elizabeth was not rebuilt.
Secularization and later religious communities
Secularization in 1802–1803 dissolved the monks’ community and transferred the monastery to the state of Nassau. Some buildings were sold to private individuals. The parish formerly associated with Schönau became part of the Vicariate General of Limburg an der Lahn, which was elevated to the Diocese of Limburg in 1827.
The Dernbacher Sisters, officially the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, moved into the monastery in 1904. Displaced Premonstratensians from Teplá Abbey in Czechoslovakia lived there from 1947 to 1975. The last Dernbacher Sisters left in 1986. Since that year, the buildings have been used by the local Catholic parish of Saint Florin. The former monastery is identified as a heritage property in Germany.
Parish and community use
The parish opened the Schönauer Book Corner as a public library in 1994. In 1997, former work buildings became the One World House, a place for learning and meetings. A computer-training facility and an Internet café were added there in 2001, extending the later community use of the former monastic precinct.
Remains
The surviving complex combines the church, cloister, abbey rectory, former work buildings, and other structures within the former monastery precinct. Its appearance reflects the Baroque rebuilding after the fire of 1723, while the Gothic chancel preserves part of the medieval complex. The original buildings had been constructed in the Romanesque style, probably around a three-aisled basilica, and included separate areas for the monks’ monastery and the nuns’ convent.
Church and medieval remains
Gothic chancel
The church is dedicated to Saint Florin. Its principal surviving medieval element is the Gothic chancel, the part of the church around the main altar reserved for clergy and liturgy. Added between 1420 and 1430, it remains visible within the church after the destruction caused by the 1723 fire.
Saint Elizabeth Chapel
A chapel dedicated to Saint Elizabeth stood on the north side of the nave and was built between 1423 and 1430. The nave is the main space used by the congregation. The chapel was destroyed in the 1723 fire and was never reconstructed. Elisabeth’s surviving skullcap is preserved in a reliquary on the right-side altar of the church.
Bells and later fittings
Former monastic bells
The former monastic bell set included three bells that are now lost. The oldest was cast in Mainz by Heinrich Roth in 1724, one year after the fire. It was requisitioned for military purposes in the 1940s, returned in 1949, and recast by Feldmann and Marschel in 1953. Two other former bells dated from 1811 and 1866, but their fate is unknown.
Historic bell in the present peal
A bell cast by Rincker in 1921 survived the Second World War. This may indicate that at least one earlier bell had already been surrendered for wartime use during the First World War. The oldest bell in the present peal dates from 1523 and is a historic godparent bell. It came from Nieder Herzogswaldau, now in Poland, was found after the war in the Hamburg bell cemetery, and was lent to Schönau because the British military administration had prohibited returns to the former German eastern territories. The present peal is described as h′-4, cis′′-5, and dis′′-6.
Former work buildings and parish facilities
The former work buildings now house the One World House, with spaces for group meetings, computer training, and an Internet café. The former monastic complex also contains the parish library established in 1994, preserving a continuing community function within the historic precinct.
