Kloster Lindow

Kloster Lindow stands on a peninsula jutting into the Wutzsee, just north-east of the old town of Lindow in Brandenburg. Founded in the 13th century by the counts of Arnstein, it became one of the richest convents in northern Brandenburg, owning ninety thousand hectares of land, eighteen villages, nine mills and several lakes. After the Reformation it was turned into an evangelical ladies’ foundation, which still occupies part of the site today. The surviving buildings date mainly from the 18th and early 19th centuries, when it served as a noble convent for unmarried daughters of the Brandenburg nobility. The complex includes the ruined east wing of the medieval convent, its gable still rising above the water, and the 1801 Conventual House where the ladies lived. A garden of books and a small open-air chapel now occupy the former cloister grounds. Visitors walk along the Stichstraße ‘Am Kloster’ to reach the peninsula. The ruined east wing’s field-stone walls still show traces of medieval plaster and painted patterns. Behind it lies the Conventual House, a brick building with a plain façade. The garden of books, planted among the old orchard plots, offers quiet benches beside apple trees and yew hedges.