Klosterruine Bärbach

The Klosterruine Bärbach stands in a quiet side valley of the Rupbach, near the village of Schönborn in the Rhein-Lahn district of Rheinland-Pfalz. It was once a Clarissan convent founded early in the 14th century and first recorded in 1339. After the Reformation the convent was dissolved in 1567 and its property passed to the hospital at Gronau. By about 1584 most of the buildings had been destroyed, leaving only fragments of the church and monastery walls. The surviving remains include part of the north wall and gable of the single-aisled, four-bay Gothic church, whose choir ended in a square, flat roof. Parts of the domestic ranges and the enclosing walls can still be seen among the trees. The old convent bell now hangs in the Protestant church at Wasenbach, a short distance away. Visitors walk through a grassy hollow where stone foundations outline vanished rooms and corridors. A low rubble heap marks where the church once rose, while ivy clings to sections of the standing masonry. The peaceful setting, with the sound of the nearby stream, makes the ruin a quiet place to reflect on its long history.