Johanniterkommende Boekzetel

The exact founding date of the Johanniterkommende Boekzetel is not recorded. It is believed that Benedictines originally founded a monastery at this location before it came into the possession of the Order of St. John. The commandery is first mentioned in a document from 1319 as “Bowkesete”. In 1499, Boekzetel was initially intended to be incorporated into the Abbingwehr commandery, but then functioned as an outlying farm of the Hasselter commandery. Following the dissolution of the Hasselter commandery in 1528 by Count Enno II, Boekzetel's estates fell to the count. The monastery church was demolished in 1555, with parts of its material being reused for other constructions. In 1608, the Knights Hospitaller regained their estates, including Boekzetel. In 1806, the King of Holland, under whose rule East Frisia then was, confiscated the estates and declared them a state domain. In the 17th century, the monastery estate was leased to the Harsebrock family, and in the late 18th century, Jan Hansen Onken gradually acquired the remaining parts of the estate, which remained in the possession of his descendants until the 20th century.

The former Johanniterkommende Boekzetel is situated in East Frisia, part of Lower Saxony in Germany, west of the Boekzeteler Meer.

Today, three farmsteads bearing the name Boekzeteler Kloster mark the former property of the commandery. A cemetery on a terp, semi-circularly enclosed by the farms, continues to be used. Geophysical surveys in 2011 provided indications of the foundations of the former monastery church beneath the cemetery, as well as other structures in the adjacent meadow area to the south.

• Rittergut Stikelkamp (manor house and estate, approx. 4704 m away)
• Kloster Ihlow (sacred building, approx. 8182 m away)
• Adelssitz Uppingaburg (castle, approx. 10750 m away)
• Schloss Philippsburg (palace, approx. 10976 m away)