Kloster Zehdenick Cistercian Monastery

The Kloster Zehdenick monastery was founded in 1250 - according to legend, to remember a Eucharistic miracle. The Cistercian monastery quickly developed into a pilgrimage site and a spiritual, cultural and economic centre in the area. After the Reformation, the monastery was transformed in 1541 into a home for unmarried daughters of the nobility. The monastery was badly destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War. Almost all the written documents in the monastery were destroyed in a fire in the town in 1801. The monastery church burned down and was not rebuilt.

Since 1946, the Evangelical monastery has been a diocese in alliance with the Evangelical Church, now the Evangelical Church in Berlin Brandenburg Silesian Upper Lusatia. Sights include the ruins of the large dormitory with the two preserved gable walls and the northern cloister wing with the preserved part of the cloister and several vaulted rooms from the 14th century. The Kloster Zehdenick monastery is one of the oldest Cistercian nunneries in Brandenburg.

The monastery garden was transformed into a meadow orchard in 2015 based on the historical model. The historic monastery cemetery, deconsecrated since 1910, was refurbished after compassionately preserving the old structure and ceremoniously inaugurated in April 2018. The site of the former monastery church was also inaugurated as a place of worship with an impressive wall cross, altar and benches under the open sky. The herb show garden next to the dormitory wall was inaugurated in August 2019.

In the summer months, the picturesque monastery courtyard and the inner rooms in the north wing of the monastery are used as the backdrop for concerts and events run by the Evangelical diocese. The monastery houses the Evangelical family counselling centre and offers apartments for families.