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Eldena Abbey (German:Kloster Eldena), originallyHilda Abbey (German:Kloster Hilda) is a formerCistercian monastery near the present town ofGreifswald inMecklenburg-Vorpommern,Germany. Only ruins survive, which are well known as a frequent subject ofCaspar David Friedrich's paintings, including the famousAbtei im Eichwald ("Abbey in the Oak Forest").
In the 12th century theBaltic coast south of the island ofRügen belonged to theRaniprincipality of Rügen, which in its turn was subject to theDanes. The Danish Cistercian monastery,Esrum Abbey, was thus able to found a daughter house in the area,Dargun Abbey, atDargun, west ofDemmin, in 1172. When in 1198 this monastery was destroyed in fighting between Denmark andBrandenburg,Jaromar I, Prince of the Rani, whose wife was of the Danish royal house, offered to re-settle the monks at a new site at the mouth of the RiverRyck, close to the boundary between the territory of the Princes of Rügen, and theCounty of Gützkow,[1] since the early 1120s subordinate to theDuchy of Pomerania.
The offer of the site, which included profitablesalt pans,[1] was accepted, and in 1199 Hilda Abbey, now Eldena Abbey,[2] was founded,[1] and confirmed byPope Innocent III in 1204.[3] The princes of Rügen further endowed the new monastery with extensive lands in the border country between the Rügen-owned territories ofGristow andWostrose (Wusterhusen), the area ofLositz (Loitz) which was debated between Rügen andMecklenburg, and theCounty of Gützkow.
The monastery became wealthy from the salt trade and was very influential in the Christianisation ofWestern Pomerania. It also brought about the foundation at the beginning of the 13th century of the town of Greifswald, which started out as the monastery's trading settlement opposite the salt pans, near the point where thevia regia, an important trade route, crossed the river. After theBattle of Bornhöved in 1227 the Danes withdrew from this part of their former territories, and despite some competition from the princes of Rügen, theDuke of Pomerania,Wartislaw III, was able in 1248/49 to press the abbey into subinfeudating Greifswald to him. Wartislaw was later buried in Eldena Abbey, as were later members of the ducal family, theHouse of Pomerania.
Throughout the 13th century, Eldena Abbey organized the cultivation and settlement of its growing estates in theOstsiedlung process, allocating and foundingWendish,Danish andGerman villages.[4] In the growing town ofGreifswald however, theCistercians of Eldena lost much of their influence the foundation in the town in the mid-13th century of friaries of theFranciscans (Greyfriars) and theDominicans (Blackfriars).
The east end of the abbey church was built in about 1200, while the conventual buildings date from the mid-13th and 14th centuries, all inBrick Gothic. The final stages of construction were the west front and the nave of the church, which were completed in the 15th century.
The abbey was dissolved in 1535, when theReformation was introduced into Pomerania by DukePhilip I, who took over its estates. The buildings were severely damaged during theThirty Years' War. In 1634 the site was given to theUniversity of Greifswald. The buildings fell derelict during theSwedish occupation of western Pomerania (1648–1815), and bricks were taken away to build fortifications.
By the beginning of the 19th century, when theRomantic painter Caspar David Friedrich knew the abbey, it was a ruin, which he made the subject of several paintings. Renewed public interest led to the beginning of restoration work in 1828, and on the basis of designs by thePrussian landscape gardenerPeter Joseph Lenné a park was laid out on the abbey precinct.
In 1926-1927, scientific excavations were carried out in order to reconstruct the exact layout of the site. In the 1960s further work was carried out to make the site suitable for use for public and cultural events. Still more works were authorised from 1996 onwards jointly by both the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (Landesamt für Denkmalpflege) and the town of Greifswald, which eventually led to the declaration of the ruins as a cultural site of thePomerania Euroregion.
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54°05′21″N13°27′08″E / 54.0892°N 13.45222°E /54.0892; 13.45222
