Kloster Höningen

Höningen’s Augustinian monastery once stood two kilometres south of Altleiningen castle in the north-eastern Pfälzerwald. Founded around 1120 by Count Emich II of Leiningen and his wife Albarat, the house followed the Augustinian Rule under a prior or provost. The monks shared the precinct with craftsmen, farmers and shepherds who worked the surrounding lands. After the monastery closed in 1569, its buildings became the site of a Latin school, and by the early 19th century the ruins had given their name to the new village of Höningen.

The site’s importance lay in its direct link to the papacy and the Leiningen dynasty. Pope Calixt II placed the house under Rome’s protection, granting the founders wide rights over lands, woods and justice. Emich II secured papal confirmation of these privileges, while his son Emich III later obtained similar safeguards from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Repeated confirmations in the 13th century show how the canons repeatedly defended their estate against shifting political winds.

Today the visitor walks among substantial ruins of the Romanesque church dedicated to Saints Peter, Paul and Verena. The apse and parts of the nave walls still rise above the ground, while the surrounding village lanes follow the old precinct boundaries. The site is quiet, shaded by the forest edge, and the standing masonry offers a clear view of how the monastery once shaped this corner of the Palatinate.