Kloster Sankt Thomas

The foundation of St. Thomas an der Kyll monastery took place at the end of the 12th century. Around 1173, shortly after the canonization of Thomas Becket, the knight Ludwig von Deudesfeld had a chapel built. This chapel housed a precious relic of the saint, which Ludwig had brought back from a pilgrimage. The chapel developed into a pilgrimage site, to which miraculous healings were attributed. Subsequently, Ludwig von Deudesfeld founded a noble women's monastery, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Thomas Becket. A document from 1185 attests to extensive land donations by Ludwig and his wife Ida to the monastery, whose first abbess was their daughter Elisabeth. Pastoral care was provided by Himmerod Abbey. Due to the strong growth of the nun community, in 1188, some of the sisters were sent to found a new establishment in Hoven near Zülpich. The construction of a larger monastery and the current church began after further donations from Ludwig's son. The consecration of the church took place in 1222, as inscriptions on the triumphal arch attest. A fire in 1742 destroyed the monastery buildings and the church roof, which were rebuilt by 1744 under Abbess Maria Theresia von Meuthen. In the course of secularization after the French conquest of the left bank of the Rhine, the monastery was dissolved in 1802, and the buildings were auctioned off. The church initially served as a filial church. In 1847, the Prussian state acquired the complex, which it handed over to the Diocese of Trier in 1852 for use as a house for demoted clergy, a disciplinary institution for clerics. From 1910 to 1942, the monastery was owned by the Franciscan Order, which carried out extensive renovation and repair work. After World War II, from 1946, the complex served as an episcopal priests' house and later as a Catholic rural school.

The former monastery of St. Thomas an der Kyll is located in the municipality of Sankt Thomas in the Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm, in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Since 2006, the complex has housed the Retreat House of the Diocese of Trier. The buildings were extensively renovated in 2007 and now offer 72 beds in 54 guest rooms, as well as seven group rooms for spiritual work. The Retreat House caters to both laypeople and clergy with its offerings, which include classic retreats, short retreats, special programs for men, for executives, and events on spirituality and coping with everyday life. The cloister of the historic monastery building is also occasionally used for public art exhibitions.

• Seinsfeld Castle (Castle, approx. 2865 m away)
• Malberg Castle (Castle, approx. 2947 m away)
• Kyllburg Castle (Castle, approx. 3565 m away)
• Densborn Castle Ruin (Castle, approx. 6227 m away)