Essen Abbey
Imperial Abbey of Essen Stift Essen | |||||||
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| 845–1803 | |||||||
Coat of arms
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| Status | Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||
| Capital | Essen Abbey | ||||||
| Government | Theocracy | ||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||
• Founded | circa 845 | ||||||
• Gained Imperial immediacy | between 874 and 947 circa 845 | ||||||
• Gained princely status | 1228 | ||||||
1495 | |||||||
• Joined Westphalian Circle | 1512 | ||||||
• Occupied by the Kingdom of Prussia | 1802 | ||||||
• Annexed by Prussia | 1803–06/7 and from 1813 1803 | ||||||
• Awarded to Berg | 1806/7—1813 | ||||||
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| Today part of | Germany | ||||||
Essen Abbey (German: Stift Essen) was a community of secular canonesses for women of high nobility that formed the nucleus of modern-day Essen, Germany.
A chapter of male priests were also attached to the abbey, under a dean. In the medieval period, the abbess exercised the functions of a bishop, except for the sacramental ones, and those of a ruler, over the very extensive estates of the abbey, and had no clerical superior except the pope.