Dobrilugk Abbey

Dobrilugk Abbey (Kloster Dobrilugk) was a Cistercian monastery in Lower Lusatia in the territory of the present town of Doberlug-Kirchhain, Brandenburg, Germany.

The abbey was legally founded on 1 May 1165 by charter of Margrave Dietrich of Landsberg und Eilenburg and of the Ostmark of Lusatia, but because of continuing hostilities in the area the community did not make any real progress until 1184, when twelve monks from Volkenroda Abbey began the settlement in earnest. By 1209 building was far enough advanced for it to be possible to bury the Margravine Elisabeth, wife of the Margrave Konrad II, in the abbey church.

Generous endowments enabled the monastery to grow very rapidly thereafter, however. In 1234 it already owned 18 villages and from 1240 it was sufficiently powerful economically to increase its land-holdings by its own purchases, rather than depending on donors. In a deed of 1370 Emperor Charles IV confirmed the monks in possession of 40 villages and five farmyards. The abbey was also the lord of the little town of Kirchhain, to which they had granted the right to hold a market in 1235. In addition, the abbey had premises in the more important towns of Luckau, seat of the territorial prince, and in Lübben (which between about 1301 and 1329 belonged to the abbey), in order to deal more efficiently with the sale of agricultural produce. Like all Cistercian abbeys, Dobrilugk was exempt from episcopal tithes.

The abbey was deeply involved in medieval land development in the west of Lower Lusatia. The monks recruited German settlers who established several villages on abbey lands; most of the serfs however were Sorbs. The abbot of Dobrilugk had a seat and a vote in the Prelates' Curia of the Lower Lusatian Landtag.

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