Langwaden Castle

Langwaden Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Grevenbroich. It is located in the district of Langwaden. In direct proximity is the district of Hülchrath with Hülchrath Castle.

Around the year 1145, the monastery was founded as a Premonstratensian nunnery at the request of Count Christian von Wevelinghoven. The monastery was enfeoffed to the Archdiocese of Cologne and therefore enjoyed the protection of the Archbishop of Cologne. The monastery was first mentioned in a document by the Archbishop of Cologne Philipp I von Heinsberg in 1173.

In 1693, a complete new construction of the church and monastery in Baroque style was carried out under Provost Jakob II Tillmanns and his successor Ignaz von Witte.

In 1802, the monastery was dissolved as part of the secularization by Napoleon, and only three years later, the monastery grounds and lands were sold to the French diplomat Nicolas-Joseph Maison. Maison had the monastery chapel demolished in 1830 and the three monastery wings converted into a castle complex. His heirs sold the grounds and all the lands to the Counts of Nesselrode in 1913.

From 1939, the buildings were used as a labor camp during the Nazi era and then as emergency accommodation for refugees after the war. In a hereditary lease agreement concluded in 1962 for 99 years between Hermann Graf von Nesselrode and the General Abbot of the Cistercian Order Dr. Sighard Kleiner, the further ownership conditions were regulated, and already in 1964, the monastery was occupied by Cistercian monks. In search of a new home, Cistercian monks from Ossegg Abbey in Northern Bohemia had found a new home here. The later 48th Abbot Bernhard there came from Langwaden.

In 1970, all renovations were completed, and Josef Cardinal Höffner consecrated the guesthouse. With the establishment of a quick printing shop with an attached bookbindery in 1985 and after further extensive renovations, the new cloister was consecrated in 1986.

Finally, in 1997, a new chapter in the monastic life of Langwaden began with the founding of the Cistercian Academy Mehrerau–Langwaden–Berlin.

Meanwhile, Langwaden has been established as an independent priory within the Cistercian Order, whereas for many years it was merely dependent.