Heiligengrabe is a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
AbbeyHeiligengrabe Abbey (formerly also known as Techow) was founded here as a Cistercian nunnery in 1289 by Heinrich, Bishop of Havelberg and the Margrave Otto of Brandenburg, initially for 12 nuns. It held an important relic in the form of a Bleeding Host which, so it was said, had been violated by a Jew. The nunnery acquired considerable wealth and estates in the area, partly through the revenue from pilgrims to the Bleeding Host, and partly through donations from the noble families round about, especially when one of their daughters entered the convent. Among the nuns of local great houses were members of the families Gans zu Puttlitz, von Quitzow, von Rohr, von Winterfeld and von Blumenthal. Some of the abbesses were great characters. One had a quarrel with the Duke of Mecklenburg, who refused to pay a debt to the abbey. So she borrowed a large artillery piece and declared war on Mecklenburg, bombarding it across the nearby frontier. At the time of the Reformation, Abbess Anna von Quitzow would have nothing to do with the new religion, and refused to pay tax. After the Reformation the nunnery became a Lutheran collegiate foundation for secular canonesses (Stiftsdamen) of the nobility, who were obliged to show sixteen quarterings in their arms before being permitted to enter. InfrastructureIn Heiligengrabe is the Blumenthal Observation Tower. GalleryReferencesExternal linksWikimedia Commons has media related to:
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