Places of reflection

As much as the aristocracy, the clergy - and there mostly the three premonstratensian convents in the town area - played an important role.

The provost's church "St. Laurentius" in "old" Arnsberg used to be the main church of the monastery Wedinghausen, which had been founded as a penance for a fratricide between the counts of Arnsberg.

At the altar of the Virgin Mary in the provost's church a coloured wooden relief reminds of the "Exile in Arnsberg" of Cologne's chapter, which found shelter in Sauerland during the Napoleonic Turmoil (1794 - 1803), together with the worldwide known "shrine of the three Magi".

Not many years after the founding of the monastery Wedinghausen, another premonstratensian convent is being founded in the nearby Rumbeck. The convent and sections of the church burn down in 1914, but get partly rebuilt.

The third premonstratensian convent in the area of Arnsberg, the rural situated Oelinghausen convent, goes back onto an endowment in 1174. It is said to be one of the most significant art-historical and sacred-musical jewels in Sauerland and is a must for every culturally-minded visitor of Arnsberg.

The baroque altar and the organ with the picturesque nun's gallery are known nationwide, as well as many other treasures of art, which are put up in the convent like the retable by Gerhard Gröninger in the south chapel.

But not only in the architecture the premonstratensians of Oelinghausen left their traces behind: All around the old walls of the convent you find signs of a really old garden culture with herbs and plants, which were already used in the convent's kitchen and the home medicine of the nuns. Even the snails that are living on these walls are said to be of monastic breed.

Sister Johanna, Oelinghausen Convent: