Dalheim Abbey (Lichtenau)

The history of Dalheim dates back a long way, with archaeological traces of settlement since the 1st century BC. Around 800, a parish church already existed, which later served a community of women as a monastery church. This women's monastery, founded in the 12th century, however, struggled with financial difficulties, destruction, and the plague, and was abandoned at the end of the 14th century. In 1429, a new foundation was established by Augustinian canons from Böddeken Monastery. Dalheim regained the status of an independent monastery in 1452 and was rebuilt in the following years with a new church and extensive convent buildings west of the old complex. Around 1500, 24 canons and 100 lay brothers lived here. Despite the Reformation, which left the Catholic-influenced monastery untouched, it suffered from the economic consequences of the Thirty Years' War. A dark episode was the witch trials around 1600/01, in which the prior and other canons were accused but ultimately acquitted. The monastery experienced its greatest flourishing in the Baroque period, especially under Prior Bartholdus Schonlau from 1708, who drove the expansion of the complex. The dissolution and secularization of the monastery took place in 1809.