Augustinerkloster Eschwege

The monastery's origins trace back to 1278, when the Augustinian Hermits received a plot of land within Eschwege's city walls from the abbess and convent of the Cyriacus Abbey. There, they began constructing a house of prayer and other necessary buildings. Over the following decades, the monastic complex expanded through the acquisition of adjacent properties. In 1366, Landgrave Heinrich zu Spangenberg permitted the monks to build latrines and connect them to the monastery via a bridge. The use of a stream flowing through the monastery for cleaning purposes was also guaranteed. From 1369, the Augustinians brewed their own beer, and in 1500, they regulated the use of their spring for the market's water supply. The monastery possessed its own library. With the introduction of the Reformation in Hesse, the monastery was dissolved in 1527, and the remaining monks were compensated. A portion of the complex was transferred to St. Elisabeth's Hospital in 1559, which converted the church into a residential building. An attempt by Jesuits to restore the monastery in 1629 failed. During the Great City Fire of 1637, the monastic buildings were destroyed. Between 1648 and 1654, the ruins were converted into the Renthof, which served as a rent office until 1834. In 1872, the city of Eschwege acquired the area to establish a secondary school but sold it to a brewer in 1875. During construction work in 1989, the foundations of the former monastery church were uncovered.

The Augustinian Monastery Eschwege is situated in the town of Eschwege, within the Werra-Meißner district, a region in northern Hesse, Germany.

Today, the preserved cellar vaults of the former monastery are utilized by the Eschweger Klosterbrauerei as storage, filter, and fermentation cellars. Four massive pillars supporting a cross-ribbed vault remain here. The late Gothic monastery chapel, renovated in 1976, has served as a branch of the civil registry office since 2016 and can be visited. The ground floor of the chapel houses a guest room. The keystones in the ground floor vault depict symbols of the Evangelists, as well as the Lamb of Christ and the Church Father Jerome. From a large stone building in the southwest corner of the monastery, the lower ground floor and the first floor, with their approximately 120 cm thick walls, have been preserved. A Latin inscription above the entrance in the monastery courtyard dates the renovation of this building to the year 1501.

• Eschwege Castle (Castle, approx. 444 m away)
• Schwebda Castle (Castle, approx. 3388 m away)
• Wolfsbrunnen Castle (Schwebda) (Castle, approx. 4096 m away)
• Jestädt Castle (Castle, approx. 4242 m away)