Unser lieben Frauen Abbey

The Liebfrauenkirche, later part of the Monastery of Our Lady, was built from 1161 onwards at the behest of Archbishop Wichmann of Seeburg from Magdeburg, after he conquered the Jüterbog region in 1157. Originally conceived as a three-aisled brick basilica, it served the Premonstratensian canons, who came from the collegiate monastery of Gottes Gnade, as a pastoral and missionary center for the Flemish colonists and the local Slavs. The church was consecrated on April 29, 1174, the day Jüterbog was granted city rights. After a presumed destruction during the Wendish Uprising in 1179, it was re-consecrated in 1183. In 1225, the church was extended with a transept and apses. From 1282, it was incorporated into the Cistercian nunnery “Zum Heiligen Kreuz,” but retained its function as a parish church for the suburb of Damm.