Zisterzienserinnenkloster Allendorf

The foundation of Allendorf Monastery occurred after 1265 by the Lords of Frankenstein, a collateral line of the Counts of Henneberg, on the site of an existing chapel dedicated to Mary. A document from 1266, granting an indulgence in favor of the monastery's foundation, confirms its establishment. It is presumed that the Cistercian abbey was intended to serve the family memory of the founding lineage. As early as 1295, the monastery suffered damage during Adolf of Nassau's campaigns in Thuringia. Although the nuns lived according to Cistercian rules, the convent was never formally incorporated into the order but was under the supervision of the Benedictine abbey of Fulda. In 1312, 28 sisters lived in the monastery. The initial endowment included property and rights in the areas of Dermbach and Salzungen, supplemented by donations from lower noble families. In the 15th century, the convent's development stagnated. A reform in 1508 under Provost Johann Löher led to a change in monastic affiliation to the Benedictine Order, when bourgeois nuns from the Benedictine convent of St. Ulrich in Würzburg occupied the monastery. After 1525, the monastery was dissolved in the course of the Reformation.

The original monastic complex was situated approximately 300 meters from the right bank of the Werra on the western slope of Frankenstein, which was crowned by Frankenstein Castle, the ancestral seat of the founding family. The monastery's name derives from the opposite village of Allendorf, which is now a district of Bad Salzungen. A small settlement that developed around the monastic buildings forms today's Kloster district. Ecclesiastically, Allendorf always belonged to the Archdeaconry of St. Severi in Erfurt within the Archdiocese of Mainz.

Of the former collegiate buildings, only the church remains. This was deconsecrated and converted, serving as a residential building until the 1980s. Due to a lack of structural maintenance, it is now a ruin threatened by collapse. The nave of the former monastery continues to be used as a residential building and is not accessible to the public.

• Haunscher Hof Castle (castle, approx. 1756 m away)
• Schnepfenburg Castle Ruin (ruin, approx. 1832 m away)
• Wildprechtroda Castle (castle, approx. 2138 m away)
• Wilhelmsburg Castle (castle, approx. 3388 m away)