Kloster Herchen

Kloster Herchen was a Cistercian nunnery founded around 1247 by Countess Mechthild of Sayn on land she owned. It stood near the Sieg river in the village of Herchen, then called Herchingen. The nuns first answered to Heisterbach Abbey from 1266. In 1459 control passed to Marienstatt Abbey, which took full charge in 1581. After the Black Death killed almost everyone in 1581, only two lay sisters survived. The remaining buildings were merged with Marienstatt’s Höhnerhof estate. A later Augustinian community briefly occupied the site until the late 16th century. In 1702 Marienstatt built the small Antonius chapel to mark the vanished nunnery. Today no trace of the cloister remains in Herchen. A ruined rubble wall in the village centre may once have belonged to an outbuilding. When a timber-framed house was repaired, builders uncovered and restored the remains of a draw-well. Modern Herchen keeps the memory alive. A street named Im Klosterhof and the local Grundschule am Klostergarten recall the old nunnery. Visitors walk past the church where the last abbess was buried and look for the restored well in the old farmyard. The Antonius chapel stands on higher ground, offering a quiet place to pause.