St. Marienthal Abbey, Cistercian nunnery in Ostritz, Germany

St. Marienthal Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery on the left bank of the Neisse in Ostritz. Its red-roofed, cream-walled wings enclose a rectangular courtyard, with a tall red-and-white tower on the left and a rounded red dome over the central entrance. A green-domed central block and two smaller domed towers rise above the wooded slope.

Kunigunde, daughter of Philip of Swabia and wife of King Wenceslas I of Bohemia, founded the abbey in 1234; a charter records her gift of the deserted village of Seifersdorf to an existing convent, and recent research suggests the burgraves of Dohna initiated the foundation as a family burial place. It joined the Cistercian Order in 1235. Hussite troops destroyed it in 1427, and fires struck in 1515, 1542 and 1683, prompting Baroque rebuilding from 1685.

The abbey's name refers to the Marian valley of its Cistercian dedication, and the community belongs to the order's Bohemian province from 1235. Since 1992 the convent has run the International Meeting Centre St. Marienthal, which works for reconciliation and understanding in the German-Polish-Czech border triangle. The nuns also ran a orphanage and school from 1838 until its forced closure in 1938.

The abbey stands on the left bank of the Neisse south of Ostritz, about 20 km from Görlitz. The International Meeting Centre founded in 1992 runs conferences and educational programmes and offers guest rooms. The grounds are best covered on foot; the Neisse floods of 1897 and 2010 damaged the site, so check current access before visiting.

In 1945 retreating German forces planned to blow up the abbey to slow the Red Army; the nuns refused to leave, and the buildings survived, though the Neisse bridge was destroyed. The community also founded the International Meeting Centre in 1992, working for reconciliation in the German-Polish-Czech border triangle.