Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: ruïnes

Kloster Gnadenberg (Gnadenberg monastery) was the first Brigittine monastery in southern Germany. It was founded in 1422 by Count Johann I of Neumarkt and his wife Katharina. Katharina knew the order of the Vadstena monastery in Sweden, where she had spent her youth. In 1420 Pope Martinus V gave permission for the construction of the monastery. The official foundation document is dated 3 February 1426. The monasteries of the Brigittine Order (Order of the Most Holy Savior) were designed by the founder of the Order as double monasteries. The first monks came from the monastery of Paradiso near Florence in 1430. After the completion of the convent in 1435, the first nuns with their first abbess Anna Svenson came from the Maribo (Denmark) convent to Gnadenberg. After the reformation in the middle of the 16th century, the monastery went downhill until it was disbanded in 1570. From 1577 onwards, the properties were sold or fief used. In 1635, during the Thirty Years' War, the Swedish Tropics set fire to the church and parts of the monastery. Except for some buildings of the convent, Gnadenberg has been a ruin ever since.

The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary and St Chad is dating back to the year of 1135 and was founded as a Savignac monastery. It was was inhabited by a small community of monks. The stone from which the abbey was built came from a quarry in the nearby settlement of Broseley. The main income for the abbey came from tolls charged on the adjacent bridge over the river Severn. Located near the border of Wales meant the abbey was destined to have a turbulent history. Welsh Princes and their followers regularly raided the Abbey and on one occasion in 1406 even kidnapped the abbot. The abbey was closed in 1536 by the order of Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The remaining buildings - situated on the banks of the river Severn - are now in the care of English Heritage and are open to the public. They can view the church, which remains largely complete and unaltered since its construction, although it is now without its roof. The impressive ruins are considered being one of the best preserved 12th-century examples of a Cistercian church in Britain.