Eldena Abbey Ruins

The Eldena Monastery or Hilda Monastery (Latin Abbatia Hilda) is a former Cistercian abbey in the Eldena district of Greifswald. The monastery is only preserved as a ruin, which gained national fame through the painter Caspar David Friedrich.

The Eldena monastery ruins were redesigned for Caspar David Friedrich's 250th birthday. Several steles were erected to provide information about the monastery's eventful history. Several benches and new plantings now make the visit even more pleasant.The monastery ruins fascinated Caspar David Friedrich and inspired him to create numerous paintings and sketches. Anyone who enters the complex understands this: an atmospheric, romantic atmosphere emanates from the monastery ruins. An impressive photo opportunity, especially at dusk or in the fog.Alongside the cathedral, the town hall square and the Wieck bascule bridge, it is one of Greifswald's landmarks!

In the twelfth century, the Baltic coast south of Rügen was under the influence of the Rügen principality, which had been under the sovereignty of the Danes since 1168/69. Under this constellation, the Cistercian monastery Esrom, located on the Danish island of Zealand, succeeded in founding a daughter monastery in Dargun, west of Demmin, in 1172. Since this was destroyed as early as 1198 as a result of armed conflict between Denmark and Brandenburg, the Rügen prince Jaromar I, whose wife came from the Danish royal family, offered the Danish Cistercian monks to settle at the mouth of the Hilda river (the river later called Ryck) (the Ryck flowed directly north of the monastery into the Danish Wiek before it was moved north.

more: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Eldena_(Vorpommern)