Benediktinerinnenabtei Burg Dinklage, Benedictine abbey in Dinklage, Germany.
Benediktinerinnenabtei Burg Dinklage occupies a moated four-wing castle complex whose present building dates from 1597, according to a now-lost armorial stone. The entrance has a sandstone Renaissance portal with rusticated blocks; the 17th-century west wing is brick, the north and east wings are half-timbered, and the two-storey rendered main house stands to the south. A sandstone oriel from the second half of the 16th century projects from its jettied upper storey.
The present castle building dates from 1597, according to a now-lost coat of arms stone, and stands on the site of a late medieval water castle. The Dietrichsburg passed by inheritance to the von Ledebur family in 1588 and was sold to the von Galen family in 1801, who made it their ancestral seat. In 1949 Count Christoph Bernhard von Galen gave the castle to Benedictine nuns from Alexanderdorf, who moved in on 8 June.
The nuns follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, which divides each day between prayer, work, and rest. The small monastery shop gives visitors a direct connection to the sisters' daily work through handmade goods like candles and icons.
The nuns opened a café in the castle park in 2001, and since 1999 part of the former farm buildings has served as the abbey's guesthouse; the other part became a home for homeless people in 1997. The former watermill and the castle chapel belong to the Cardinal von Galen Foundation. The site lies within the Burgwald Dinklage nature reserve, separated from the landscape protection area in 2017.
Cardinal Clemens August von Galen, the bishop of Munster known for openly opposing the Nazi regime, was born within these castle walls in 1878. His family had owned the building for generations before the nuns arrived after the war.
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