Disibodenberg (German pronunciation:[diziˈboːdn̩bɛʁk]) is a monastery ruin nearStaudernheim inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It was founded on the eponymous hill near the convergence of theGlan and theNahe rivers by SaintDisibod.Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote Disibod'sHagiography "Vita Sancti Disibodi", lived in Disibodenberg for 39 years. Today, it lies within the "Nature Protection Area Disibodenberg".

Disibodenberg Abbey

Kloster Disibodenberg
The ruins of Disibodenberg's guest house, built ca. 1400
Location within Rhineland-Palatinate Show map of Rhineland-Palatinate Disibodenberg (Germany) Show map of Germany
Monastery information
Order	Cistercian
Established	ca. 700
Disestablished	1559
Mother house	Eberbach Abbey
Site
Location	nearOdernheim am Glan
Coordinates	49°46′36″N7°42′04″E / 49.77667°N 7.70111°E /49.77667; 7.70111
Public access	https://www.disibodenberg.de/

In 640, Disibod came as a missionary fromIreland toFrancia. After working for 10 years inVosges andArdennes, he arrived nearOdernheim am Glan and started teaching there. According to Hildegard'sVita, the monastery was founded "where [Disibod's] walking stick, planted in the ground, elicited greenery, where a white doe scratched a freshwater spring into the ground, and where the two rivers converged".^[1] It is thought that, before Disibod's arrival, the hill already was the site of aCeltic temple. Disibod built aBaptistery at the spring on the foot of the hill, after his death in 700, his supposedly miraculous burial site became a destination for pilgrimages.

Shortly after Disibod's death, a church and monastery-like structure was founded on the hill, one of the oldest such foundations within theDiocese of Mainz. In 745,Saint Boniface, theBishop of Mainz, visited Disibodenberg andtranslated the relics of Disibod to the altar of the new monastery church.

The monastery was destroyed by theVikings in 882, and by theMagyars in the early 10th century. In both occasions, the monks fled and abandoned the monastery, it was dissolved byBishop Hatto II. However, in 1000,Bishop Willigis had the monastery reestablished, entrusting it to 12Augustiniancanons and endowing it with several of the surrounding towns and farms.

In 1107,Archbishop Ruthard transferred the control of the monastery from its canons to a group ofBenedictines from Mainz, who presided over the construction of a new monastery church, which was completed in 1143.^[2]

Following the Benedictine takeover, theCounts of Sponheim sponsored the building of aFrauenklause, a female hermitage associated with the monastery, at Disibodenberg.Jutta von Sponheim, the pious daughter ofStephen II, Count of Sponheim, and Hildegard of Bingen took their vows there fromOtto of Bamberg on All Saint's Day 1112.

Following Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard succeeded her as abbess. The female community at Disibodenberg was moved to nearby Rupertsberg in 1147, following several disputes with the male monks and the growth of Hildegard'sFrauenklause to 18 nuns.^[3]

Not long after Hildegard's departure from Disibodenberg, the fortunes of the monastery began to darken, mostly due to local feuds and the growing issue of therobber barons in the area. In 1259, Archbishop Gerhard I. von Dhaun of Mainz replaced the Benedictine presence on the now-largely abandoned abbey withCistercians fromOtterberg Abbey. Under Cistercian sponsorship, Disibodenberg's debts were paid and the monastery entered its third, and last, period of prosperity, which lasted until ca. 1500.

The monastery was plundered in 1471 during a dispute betweenElector Frederick I andCount Louis I, and in 1504 during theWar of the Succession of Landshut. Before it had time to rebuild, theReformation engulfed the Palatinate, and the last abbott, Peter von Limbach, handed Disibodenberg over toWolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken. It was secularized in 1559.

Save for failed attempts in 1631 and 1639 to revitalize the abbey under Spanish patronage during theThirty Years' War, the monastery fell into ruin. Its buildings were largely intact, albeit ruinous, until the area'soccupation by France between 1797 and 1814, during which the monastery's use as a quarry commenced.Spolia from Disibodenberg was widely used for infrastructure and buildings in the surrounding area.

From 1842 to 1844, then-owner Peter Wannemann uncovered the monastery's remaining ruins and turned the property into aromanticlandscape park. The property's last private owner, EhrengardFreifrau von Racknitz, handed it over to theDisibodenberg Scivias Foundation, which retains ownership to this day.

A small 1998chapel dedicated to Hildegard of Bingen is situated at the foot of the hill, and wine is cultivated on the hill. The ruins are open for visitors, and contextualized by information panels. A small museum dedicated to Hildegard is situated in a former agricultural building on the site.^[2]

• Wolfgang Müller.Nahekunde: Sobernheim und seine Umgebung im Wechsel der Zeiten. Sobernheim a. d. Nahe: H. Schäffling, 1924.
• Charlotte Kerner.Alle Schönheit des Himmels - Die Lebensgeschichte der Hildegard von Bingen. 1993
• Eberhard J. Nikitsch.Kloster Disibodenberg. Religiosität, Kunst und Kultur im mittleren Naheland. (Große Kunstführer Bd. 202). Regensburg 1998.

• Scivias-Stiftung Disibodenberg