Eppenberg Abbey (Ruin) (Gensungen)

Around 1217, Premonstratensian nuns from Ahnaberg Abbey received permission to establish a branch monastery on Eppenberg, which Archbishop Siegfried II of Mainz confirmed in 1219. Initially managed as a daughter house of Ahnaberg, Eppenberg developed into an independent collegiate church by 1250, flourishing under the protection of Spieskappel Abbey. Donations and land acquisitions in surrounding villages like Altenbrunslar and Gensungen contributed to its prosperity. In 1269, the foundation of the Premonstratensian convent of St. Georg in Homberg was initiated by Provost Arnold of Eppenberg. However, wealth led to a decline in discipline and mismanagement, which Landgrave Ludwig I lamented. A papal bull dissolved the collegiate church in 1438 and converted it into a Carthusian monastery, which monks from Erfurt occupied in 1440, naming it “St. Johannis.” In 1471, Landgrave Ludwig II gifted the monastery the Wimmenhof and the nearby, partly ruined Heiligenberg Castle. During the Reformation, the monastery was secularized in 1527 and used by Landgrave Philipp I as a hunting lodge.