Eppinghoven Abbey

Eppinghoven Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey located in Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia, in the diocese of Aachen.

The monastery was founded in 1214 under the name of Mariensaal Abbey first in the Kaarst Forest, in the same year as the Saarn Abbey to which it was affiliated and placed under the authority of Kamp Abbey. Kaarst and Saarn were, in the first two decades of their lives, under the joint direction of the abbess Wolberna. In 1231, thanks to a gift from Sibert and Gisela, a couple from Neuss, of a plot of land on the banks of the Erft, the monastery was transferred to Eppinghoven. In 1236, Emperor Frederick II provided his protection, and the following year Pope Gregory IX issued his confirmation. During the ecclesiastical conflict in Cologne in 1475, the monastery was seriously damaged, and the abbess and the convent took refuge in the nearby abbey of Gnadental, which was fortified. In 1650, the abbey became a community of canonesses.

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