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Halsted Priory


Halsted Priory was a small Benedictine house located near Nakskov, on the island of Lolland, Denmark.

Halsted Priory was from Viking times crown property. An old granite parish church had been built on the site in the 12th century. A papal recognition of the priory was written in 1177. Halsted is next mentioned by name in Valdemar Sejr's 1231 inventory (Danish: jordebog). Erik Plovpenny's daughter Jutta came into possession of Halsted in 1284 and then unexpectedly died the same year. She willed it to the abbot of the Benedictine priory in Ringsted. The existing church at Halsted was constructed around the earlier church in conjunction with the building of the daughter monastery which was dedicated to St. Samson the Breton. The church became a pilgrimage site for commoners and royals alike for the veneration of St. Samson, because the church had a reliquary with his head in it.

The priory was built in a roughly rectangular shape with space for a dormitory, refectory, kitchens, storage, cellars, and space for lay brothers. No contemporary description of Halsted Priory survives. Given the time period in which it was built, it can safely be said that the buildings were built in Gothic style out of brick as evidenced by the church which still stands today. The interior spaces had vaulted roofs. Halsted was a small house, but to survive must have had at least a few income properties which over the centuries came to the monastery from wills or letters of gift in return for prayers for the souls of the recently departed, though no such letters have survived to the present.

The only historical event known to involve the priory was when Prince Erik, the son of Christoffer II lay at Halsted for 14 days before being moved to his final resting place at Sorø Abbey.

In 1510 the Hanseatic League sacked nearby Nakskov and then sailed up the fjord to Halsted where they set fire to the priory burning the east and west ranges. The priory archives have all been lost except for a single letter of indulgence dated 1517. The priory was restored and was made an abbey, but the winds of change were blowing in Denmark and would within a decade empty the priory permanently.


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