Prämonstratenserinnenstift Hopels

The foundation of Hopels Monastery, dedicated to Mary, is presumed to have occurred between 1235 and 1290, likely by Premonstratensians from Dokkum. A first documented mention from 1290 reports 90 inhabitants. After another mention in 1310, information is scarce for a long period. The Stader Kopiar from 1420 indicates that St. Nikolai Church on Wangerooge was incorporated into the monastery, and Hopels owned other properties in the vicinity. In 1450, the women's monastery, considered to be dilapidated, was handed over by the Premonstratensian General Chapter to the Augustinian Canons of Marienkamp Monastery in Esens, causing Hopels to lose its independence. After the Reformation, Count Enno II dissolved Marienkamp Monastery in 1528, though Hopels may have been abandoned even earlier. The lands were converted into comital domains. The stones of the monastery church are said to have been reused during the expansion of the church in Remels.

The former monastery complex is located in the Hopels State Forest, approximately five kilometers southwest of the village of Friedeburg in East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany.

The former monastery grounds are now part of the Hopels State Forest. The site is still surrounded by a moat about four meters wide and an outer rampart of the same width and 0.7 meters high. On the grounds, there is an irregularly shaped earthen mound about 1.5 meters high, on which several large granite boulders have been placed, including the so-called Cirk Steen, a memorial stone from around 1900, erected on the presumed monastery cemetery. In 1980, educational excavations were carried out on the site.

• Neuenburg Castle (Castle, approx. 10505 m away)
• Gödens Castle (Castle, approx. 13731 m away)
• Stikelkamp Manor (Manor House, approx. 16996 m away)
• Marienhausen Castle Ruin (Castle, approx. 18100 m away)