Zisterzienserinnenkloster Schledenhorst (vorher Empel)

A Cistercian convent once stood four kilometres south-east of Haldern in the Lower Rhine region. Today its ruins lie within the town of Rees in the Kleve district of North Rhine-Westphalia. The house was founded in 1240 by the knight Bernard of Rees and placed under the protection of the Archbishop of Cologne three years later. In 1249 it joined the Cistercian order and was guided by the abbot of Kamp monastery. Repeated fires, wars and plunderings—by Spanish, marauding, imperial and French troops—left the convent financially ruined by the 18th century. In 1803 it was dissolved under secularisation and the buildings were sold and demolished. A farm now occupies the site of the former monastic farm buildings. At the old entrance stands the Schledenhorst chapel, built from the remains of the convent church and housing a 15th-century crucifixion group. Two abbess tombstones, once laid in the church floor, are set into the chapel’s outer walls. The chapel’s small bell once hung in the convent church; two other bells now ring in the Protestant church of Haldern. Nearby, the late-Gothic Haldern altar, attributed to the Master of Schöppingen, has been moved to Münster’s Westphalian state museum, while carved figures from the church remain in Haldern’s parish church. Every 20 August a memorial service is held on the former church site to mark the death of Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the Cistercian order.