Ravengiersburg Abbey

The Ravengiersburg Monastery is located in the municipality of Ravengiersburg in the central Hunsrück.

Until 1566, the monastery was an Augustinian canons' collegiate church; today, the monastery is owned by the Catholic Church.

The monastery was founded in 1074 by Count Berthold and Hedwig of Ravengiersburg, who had remained childless and gave all their possessions for it, as an Augustinian canons' collegiate church. It was then founded by Archbishop Siegfried I of Mainz for 12 canons. It is considered the oldest monastery in the Hunsrück region. The monastery church is dedicated to St. Christopher. The monastery's vogts were the Wildgraves, later the Lords of Heinzenberg (as a Wildgrave fief). After the extinction of the Heinzenberg family in 1395 and the extinction of the Wildgraves in 1408, the Palatine Counts received the vogtei over the monastery. In 1410, the entire provostry area with the monastery was transferred to the newly created Duchy of Palatinate-Simmern-Zweibrücken (later Palatinate-Simmern). The provostry area included the regional courts of Nunkirch and Biebern with numerous villages.

Until the Reformation, the monastery developed into the largest landowner between the Moselle and Nahe rivers. In 1564, the monastic tradition ended, and several attempts at revival failed. In 1631, Swedish troops finally burned it down during the Thirty Years' War. The present nave was built between 1718 and 1722 by Elector Karl III Philip of the Palatinate.

In 1920, it was re-established as a Philosophical-Theological Order University of the Missionaries of the Holy Family (Provincialate in Düren or Mainz). Between 1970 and 2006, the Catholic Workers' Movement operated a training center for disadvantaged young people in the monastery buildings.