Arnsburg Abbey
| Kloster Arnsburg | |
The roofless abbey church
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 Location within Germany
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| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Cistercian |
| Established | 1174 |
| Disestablished | 1803 |
| Mother house | Eberbach Abbey |
| Site | |
| Location | near Lich, Hesse |
| Coordinates | 50°29′37″N 8°47′32″E / 50.49361°N 8.79222°ECoordinates: 50°29′37″N 8°47′32″E / 50.49361°N 8.79222°E |
Arnsburg Abbey (German: Kloster Arnsburg) is a former Cistercian monastery near Lich in the Wetterau, Hesse, Germany. It was founded by monks from Eberbach Abbey in 1174. Although heavily damaged in the Thirty Years' War it was rebuilt later in the 17th century and prospered in the 18th century, when much of the abbey was rebuilt in Baroque style.
Secularized in 1803 and abandoned by its monks in 1810, its economy buildings were given to the Grafen (Counts) von Solms-Laubach, who adapted them as their seat. The abbey church today stands as a roofless ruin, but many of the outbuildings are still intact and have seen various uses over the past 200 years. Since 1960 the abbey has also been the site of a war memorial, containing the graves of German soldiers and Soviet, Polish and Romanian prisoners-of-war/forced labourers as well as those of 87 people shot by the SS in the final days of World War II. The abbey is partially open to the public.
Arnsburg Abbey is located on the Wetter river, near the former Bundesstrasse 488 (now Landesstraße 3053) between Lich and Butzbach. The region is also known as Wetterau. Administratively, the area is an Ortsteil of Lich (also named Kloster Arnsburg), part of the Landkreis Gießen.
In the 1st century AD, the Roman Empire under Emperor Domitian expanded its territory in Germania at the expense of the local Chatti. The Limes Germanicus was extended to the northeast to include most of the area now known as Wetterau. The Limes passed a few hundred meters north and east of the location of the later abbey. Around 750 meters southwest of this area the Romans built a castrum, later known as Kastell Arnsburg/Alteburg, which housed a cohort of around 500 soldiers. The castrum encompassed an area of 2.9 hectares, protected by a surrounding rectangular wall with 14 towers and four gates (each flanked by another two towers). This was the most northeastern full-sized castrum of the Limes. Along with the rest of the border, it was vacated by the Romans in 250/260.
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