Munkeby Abbey
View of the ruins
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 Location within Nord-Trøndelag
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| Monastery information | |
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| Other names | Norwegian: Munkeby kloster |
| Order | Cistercian |
| Established | 12th century |
| Disestablished | 13th century |
| Mother house | Tautra Abbey |
| Dedicated to | Saint Brettiva |
| Site | |
| Location | Okkenhaug, Levanger, Norway |
| Coordinates | 63°43′49″N 11°23′08″E / 63.7304°N 11.3855°ECoordinates: 63°43′49″N 11°23′08″E / 63.7304°N 11.3855°E |
| Visible remains | Church foundation and walls |
| Public access | Yes |
Munkeby Abbey is a Cistercian monastery near the village of Okkenhaug in the municipality of Levanger in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of the town of Levanger. The name "Munkeby" in Norwegian means Place of the Monks. It was closed during the Protestant Reformation, but was recently refounded.
The abbey was founded sometime between 1150 and 1180, and was the most northerly Cistercian foundation in the world. Possibly, like Hovedøya Abbey and Lyse Abbey, Munkeby's foundation was carried out by English monks. In 1207, Tautra Abbey was founded, and, either then or at some later point in the 13th century the community and assets of Munkeby were transferred to the new foundation, of which Munkeby then became a grange.
An attempt to re-establish it as an independent house in the 1470s failed. The church however continued in use as a parish church until 1587.
Local tradition had always maintained that Okkenhaug Chapel had once belonged to a monastery; for centuries historians dismissed this, until in 1906 a letter dated 1475 from Pope Sixtus IV to Abbot Stephen of Trugge was discovered in the Vatican archives referring to the request for the restoration of the site as a functioning monastery.
It has sometimes been asserted that the church here was the same as that dedicated to the local Saint Brettiva in Skogn, but this has not found general acceptance.
Norway accepted the Protestant Reformation and officially became a Luteran kingdom in 1537. All Catholic religious houses were then seized and declared to be Crown property. This was true of Munkeby.
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