Kloster Wiebrechtshausen

The former Cistercian convent of Wiebrechtshausen stands in a quiet valley 4 km north of Northeim in South Lower Saxony. It lies at the foot of the Nonnenberg hill where the Dünne stream flows through the meadows. The Dünenberg hill rises a little further east. Today the site is a working farm run by KWS Saatzucht AG. The convent was founded between 1207 and 1245 by women following the Cistercian rule. The first abbess, Hedwig of Gandersheim, led the house from 1207 until her death in 1232. In 1542 Elisabeth of Brandenburg imposed a Protestant order on the convent, though full Reformation came only in 1588. By 1670 the complex included a church, a nunnery with tithe barn, a school, stables, a mill, a brewery and a smithy. The church is a plain Romanesque aisleless basilica built around 1230–40. Its western block houses a wooden bell turret added in the 19th century. Inside, the walls are unplastered and the windows unadorned. A wooden crucifix from the late 13th century stands on the high altar. The Annen Chapel on the north side, built about 1400, shelters the tomb of Duke Otto the Quade, once buried in unconsecrated ground. Four Baroque grave slabs line the walls, one showing a knight in armour with the Saxon steed on his helmet.