Stift Berentrop

Stift Berentrop is a former Premonstratensian monastery in the Sauerland hills near Neuenrade. Founded in the 13th century as Silva Sancte Marie Virginis, it later bore the names Marienwalde and Bertelindorp. The monastery once controlled farms in several villages and held the parish church in Werdohl. Its leaders included a provost, prior, subprior and cellarer, supported by priests, deacons and lay brothers.

The monastery lost its religious role after the Reformation reached the site around 1615 under Prior Sergius von Pöpinghausen. By 1630 it had been leased to secular tenants, and the church building passed to Protestant use in 1669. Financial troubles grew as tenants failed to pay dues and outsiders cut timber without permission. In 1800 a bleaching works was set up on the grounds before the estate was sold in 1806 to Arnold Heinrich Ludwig Schniewindt.

The main house built by the Schniewindt family after a fire in 1815 still stands on the site. It later served as a home for young men in a metalworking apprenticeship programme. Today the empty manor is partly protected as a monument. The surrounding fields and wooded slopes recall the estate’s long history from medieval monastery to modern farm.