Kloster Doberan

After the defeat by Henry the Lion in the Battle of Verchen in 1164, Obotrite Prince Pribislaw submitted in 1167 and was baptised. One of Henry's conditions was the obligation to spread Christianity in the country by building monasteries.

The Doberan Abbey was the first monastery founded in Mecklenburg, in 1171, as a daughter house of the cistercian Amelungsborn Abbey. The first community was massacred in 1179 in the unrest following the death of Pribislaw, and the abbey was re-founded in 1186. It became a political, social and spiritual centre in the region. The Romanesque monastery church, consecrated in 1232, was replaced after the fire of 1291 by a High Gothic church, the construction of which was probably begun in 1295. The new Gothic building was consecrated in 1368. The church was the most important burial place of the sovereign princes in the Middle Ages.

After the Reformation, the monastery was dissolluted and the properties passed to the sovereign in 1552. The relics were removed from the monastery church and the monastery facilities were partially destroyed. Duke Ulrich of Mecklenburg-Güstrow wanted to preserve the church as the burial place of the princely house and so a first restoration of the monastery church began.

The buildings were were looted and damaged in 1637 during the Thirty Years' War, and the church was used as a warehouse. During the French occupation of Mecklenburg by Napoleon from 1806 to 1813, the remaining buildings suffered further damage, and the monastery church was again used as a warehouse. Restorations took place from 1883 to 1896 and from 1962 to 1976.

The Cistercians had good relations with France, from where the architecture of the former monastery church was strongly influenced. The vaulted nave is 76 metres long, 11 metres wide and 26 metres high.

It is believed that the high altar (around 1300) is the oldest winged altar in art history. It is four metres high without the pinnacles and was restored at the end of the 19th century.

On the wings, scenes from the Old and New Testaments were reproduced in the two upper rows of figures. These figures resemble French cathedral sculptures in their posture and garments. The lowest row of figures is more recent (before 1368) and differs in style and content. Here are the 12 apostles, Pope Fabian and St. Sebastian (patron saints against the plague) and the centre of the altar (hard to see, behind the cross) the Coronation of Mary.