Schinna Abbey

Schinna Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Schinna, a village in the municipality of Stolzenau, in the state of Lower Saxony and the former diocese of Minden.

The abbey was founded by Count Wilbrand I of Loccum-Hallermund on his possessions west of the Weser from 1148. Since the abbey is located directly on the Weser, it is likely that Wilbrand wanted to create a base on the way to his Frisian possessions. The consecration took place in 1153 on the day of St. Vitus and in 1155 it was confirmed by Bishop Werner of Minden. In 1234, seven monks are mentioned in the monastery, although the convent may have been larger. In 1466 the monastery joined the Bursfelde congregation and since then the Counts of Hoya have had the patronage of the church. Under pressure from Count Erich von Hoya, the monastery was deprived of its land in the first third of the sixteenth century. There is also a ban on the admission of novices, so that the decline of the monastery is foreseen. When Abbot Friedrich von Soltau died in 1537, the count wanted the monastery to be secularized. The general chapter of the congregation of Bursfeld prevented him from doing so. The Reformation prevailed in Schinna with the appointment of a Lutheran pastor in 1542, when the convention consisted of only five members. After the line of the Counts of Hoya ceased to exist in 1582, the monastery was leased and later used as an agricultural estate in the district of Stolzenau. In 1876, the monastery was finally closed by conversion to public property.

Wikipedia