Werden Abbey, Benedictine monastery in Essen, Germany
Werden Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Essen, Germany, whose buildings include a three-wing abbey complex, an eastern farm building from 1737, and a western gatehouse completed in 1794. The east wing houses the St. Ludgerus Treasury, which displays the remaining church treasures of the former Benedictine abbey.
Liudger, the Frisian missionary and first Bishop of Münster, founded the monastery on his inherited land in 799; his brother Hildigrim I succeeded him as abbot in 809. On 22 May 877 the monks obtained free abbatial election and immunity, making Werden an Imperial abbey whose abbots sat in the Imperial Diet. The abbey was dissolved in the secularization of 1803 and its territory passed to Prussia.
Since 1945 the former abbey buildings have housed the Folkwang University of the Arts, which grew out of the Folkwang school founded in Hagen in 1927. The east wing's St. Ludgerus Treasury, closed after a fire in February 2008, has reopened to visitors.
Visitors can explore the St. Ludgerus Treasury in the east wing, which displays church treasures from centuries of monastic history. Access to the grounds is available during daytime hours, though some areas may have limited access due to university use.
The monastery complex ranks among the few late Baroque structures within the present-day city limits of Essen. This architecture stands in contrast to the industrially shaped surroundings of the Ruhr region.
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