Franziskanerkloster Hardenberg-Neviges

The monastery was founded in 1675 by Anna von Bernsau, the widow of Johann Sigismund von Bernsau, who died in 1655. She called the Franciscans of the Saxon Franciscan Province Saxonia to Neviges, where they began their work in 1676. The actual construction of the monastery took place between 1680 and 1697. From 1729, the monastery in Neviges served as a novitiate monastery for the Saxonia province, alongside the Franciscan Monastery Hamm. Despite its formal dissolution during the secularization by Elector Maximilian Joseph of Palatinate-Bavaria in 1804, the monastery de facto continued to exist, as the Franciscans took over parish pastoral care and remained in the convent buildings. The Prussian state was interested in stable pastoral structures. In 1812, it became a central or dying-out monastery, where friars from dissolved monasteries could live until their death. Even after the death of Guardian Bernhard Aulinck in 1820, a successor as parish priest and superior could be appointed. King Frederick William III of Prussia permitted the continued existence of some monasteries in 1826, and although Neviges was not explicitly mentioned, it was allowed to continue as long as Franciscans were active there. The Franciscans managed the Marian pilgrimage to Neviges, built the Church of St. Mary's Immaculate Conception, and a convent building. Between 1965 and 1968, the Pilgrimage Church of Mary, Queen of Peace, was built by the Archdiocese of Cologne. In 2020, the monastery was dissolved due to a lack of new recruits. Pastoral care has since been continued by three priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Martin.

The Franciscan Monastery Hardenberg-Neviges is located in the city of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The former monastery buildings and churches are now used by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Martin, which continues the pastoral duties.

• Hardenberg Castle (Castle, approx. 536 m away)
• Hardenberg Castle Ruin (Castle, approx. 627 m away)
• Aprath Castle Remains (Castle, approx. 4650 m away)
• Haus Düssel (Castle, approx. 6035 m away)