Dierstein Abbey (German: Kloster Dierstein) was a Benedictine nunnery, on the site now occupied by Schloss Oranienstein near Diez an der Lahn, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany.

17th-century drawing showing the nunnery in ruins after the Thirty Years' War

It is first recorded in 1153 and was probably founded by the counts of Diez. A second church is recorded in 1221, dedicated to John the Baptist.[1] In 1466 Abbess Elisabeth Beyer von Boppard, who came from Marienberg Abbey (near Boppard), introduced the statutes of the Bursfelde Congregation.[2] It had extensive endowments in its heyday, but in 1564 it was abolished. It was recorded in 1643 that it had fallen into ruin.[1]

During the construction of the Schloss Oranienstein's main wing between 1672 and 1681, stones were re-used from the chapel and the nunnery ruins. During the 1704-09 rebuild of the Schloss, the last visible ruins of the monastic buildings disappeared.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Georg Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler – Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland. Deutscher Kunstverlag, München 1984, ISBN 3422003827, p. 211
  2. ^ Otto Volk: "Boppard im Mittelalter". In: Heinz E. Mißling (ed.): Boppard. Geschichte einer Stadt am Mittelrhein. Erster Band. Von der Frühzeit bis zum Ende der kurfürstlichen Herrschaft. Dausner Verlag, Boppard 1997, ISBN 3930051044, pp. 338–348
  3. ^ Jacob Marx: Geschichte des Erzstiftes Trier. Linz 1862, pp. 171 ff.

50°23′02″N 8°00′40″E / 50.3839°N 8.0111°E / 50.3839; 8.0111