Himmelpforten Convent

Himmelpforten Convent

Kloster Himmelpforten
Location within Lower Saxony
Monastery information
Other names	Conventus Porta Coeli  (Latin) Klooster Hemelpoorten  (Low Saxon) Kloster Himmelpforten  (German)
Order	Cistercian Lutheran Damsels' Convent
Established	before 1255
Disestablished	1630, and again 1647
Reestablished	1634
Dedicated to	Gate of Heaven
Diocese	Archdiocese of Bremen
Controlled churches	Abbey, St. Mary's Church, Großenwörden (), and St. Peter's Church, Horst upon Oste ()
Architecture
Functional Status	defunct
Style	early Gothic
Groundbreaking	1300
Completion date	1330
Site
Location	Himmelpforten
Coordinates	53°36′52″N 9°18′17″E / 53.614494°N 9.304755°E / 53.614494; 9.304755Coordinates: 53°36′52″N 9°18′17″E / 53.614494°N 9.304755°E / 53.614494; 9.304755
Visible remains	northern wall of the present Lutheran church

Himmelpforten Convent (Low Saxon: Klooster Hemelpoorten, German: Kloster Himmelpforten; Latin: Conventus Porta Coeli) was founded as a monastery of nuns following the Cistercian Rule during the 13th century in Himmelpforten, in today's Lower Saxony, Germany. During the 16th century, it was converted into use as a Lutheran Damsels' Convent. The Himmelpforten Convent was founded before 1255 and finally dissolved in 1647. The convent complex was built between 1300 and 1330. After 1645 the buildings, including the abbey, increasingly decayed, until they were little by little demolished. The dilapidated abbey was demolished in 1737 and replaced by today's St. Mary's Church which partially covers the foundations of the former abbey.

The convent was founded in the mid-13th century on Westerberg hill in Rahden (), a location later indicated by St. Andrew's Chapel. As the Cistercian Order had restricted the incorporation of the growing number of women's monastic communities who followed the Cistercian Rule, and since no existing deed neither records the incorporation of the Himmelpforten Convent, nor the appointment of a Father Abbot, as usual for an affiliated community of women, Porta Coeli most likely never officially joined that Order.

In 1244 and 1245 the Cistercian general chapter had determined that a monastery of nuns could be incorporated into the Cistercian Order only if the competent bishop and the competent cathedral chapter exempted the community's temporalities and spiritualities from their control. However, such a wide-ranging exemption from their sovereignty is exactly what Bremen's cathedral chapter and the prince-archbishop did not want, as is described below.