The Wienhausen Convent

A jewel of Low German Brick Gothic and Half-Timbered Architecture

This former Cistercian convent is a jewel of Low German, brick Gothic and half-timbered architecture.

Particularly worth mentioning are the art treasures, including valuable tapestries from the 14th and 15th centuries, the painting of the nuns' choir, valuable chests and cupboards and a collection of the oldest spectacles in the world.

The chronicle of the convent tells of its foundation around 1230 by Agnes von Landsberg, Duchess of Celle and a daughter-in-law of Henry the Lion.

She became a widow in 1225 and "although she was still in her prime, so too she had a loathing of large palaces and amusements all over the world, thought (she) ... to build a spiritual virgin convent in God's honour". The convent was officially affirmed by the Bishop of Hildesheim. The Bishop and Ducal house in Celle, for which Wienhausen served as "house convent", furnished the convent with numerous goods. These and other donations enabled the convent,100 years later, to create the magnificent painting of the nuns' choir, which can be seen from the outside, on the graduating, stepped gables of the building and which continues to cast its spell on visitors to this day.

In addition to the numerous medieval works of art, the chests and cupboards, it is the embroidered Gothic tapestries that particularly fascinate thousands of visitors every year.  For one week, traditionally from the Saturday after Pentecost, a festival is held, during which expert talks are given explaining the history of the tapestries. This is a special time for the convent, the visitors and helpers alike, with days of concerts, lectures and an exhibition of contemporary convent engravings.

Since the reformation a Protestant convent has lived here: today fourteen Lutherian sisters of the convent, with their Abbess. Convent regulations oblige the sisters to make the art treasures accessible to the public, a task they fulfil in the form of Christian proclamation and service.