Lüne Abbey

Lüne Monastery
Kloster Lune
Lüne Monastery
Location of Lüne Abbey in Lower Saxony, Germany
Lüne Monastery
Lüne Monastery (Germany)
53°15′37″N 10°25′20″E / 53.260278°N 10.422222°E / 53.260278; 10.422222
LocationLüneburg, Lower Saxony
Country Germany
DenominationEvangelical-Lutheran
Previous denominationRoman Catholic
Websitewww.kloster-luene.de
History
StatusConvent
Founded1172
FounderHildeswidis von Marcboldestorpe
DedicationBartholomew the Apostle
Architecture
Functional statusactive
Heritage designationBaudenkmal of Lower Saxony

Lüne Monastery (German: Kloster Lüne) is an Evangelical-Lutheran convent that is managed by the Klosterkammer Hannover (Hanover Monastic Chamber). The current abbess is Reinhild Freifrau von der Goltz.

It was founded in 1172 as a Benedictine nunnery in the Lower Saxon town of Lüneburg. The convent soon established itself as a wealthy and autonomous local power in the Lüneburg Heath region. It recruited its nuns mostly from the influential patrician families of Lüneburg and accommodated up to 60 women over most of its existence. These women would be thoroughly educated in Latin, Liberal Arts and in Christian doctrine and liturgy. Over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, the convent structure changed first through the monastic reform (1481), then through the Protestant Reformation.