Ahrensbök Charterhouse was a former Carthusian

Carthusian

The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...

 monastery, or charterhouse, in Ahrensbök

Ahrensbök

Ahrensbök is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approx. 17-km northwest of Lübeck, and 45-km southeast of Kiel.-History:...

 in Holstein

Holstein

Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Monastery

The charterhouse was established in 1397. The estates with which it was endowed reached as far as Scharbeutz

Scharbeutz

Scharbeutz is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the Bay of Lübeck , approx. 20 km north of Lübeck, and 15 km southeast of Eutin....

 on the Bay of Lübeck

Bay of Lübeck

The Bay of Lübeck is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of German lands of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein. It forms the southwestern part of the Bay of Mecklenburg....

.

During the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 the monastery was secularised, and with its estates fell into the hands of John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, in 1584, who had the buildings demolished.

Castle

The building materials were used between 1593 and 1601 for the construction of the castle in Ahrensbök, Schloss Hoppenbrook, which was the principal residence between 1623 and 1636 of the newly formed Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön

The Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön , also Schleswig-Holstein-Plön, Holstein-Plön or just Duchy of Plön, was a small sub-duchy created by the physical division of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. Today, its remaining significance is primarily the building of Plön Castle...

 while Duke Joachim Ernst I's new castle in Plön

Plön

Plön is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 13,000 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on several smaller lakes, touching the town on virtually all sides...

 (Schloss Plön) was under construction. Once Schloss Plön was finished, the ducal residence was moved there from Ahrensbök, leaving Schloss Hoppenbrook as a secondary residence.

After the death there in 1740 of Duchess Juliane Luise, widow of Joachim Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderborg-Plön, Schloss Hoppenbrook was demolished. The Rathaus

Rathaus

Rathaus is a German word literally translating as “council house”, meaning “city hall” or “town hall”. Many specific buildings are referred to as Rathaus even when spoken about in English.Some important Rathäuser are:* Rathaus Schöneberg...

of Ahrensbök now stands on its site, in a park in which ditches from the previous castle complex can still be made out.

Monastery church

The only surviving building from the time of the Carthusians is the Brick Gothic

Brick Gothic

Brick Gothic is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northern Europe, especially in Northern Germany and the regions around the Baltic Sea that do not have natural rock resources. The buildings are essentially built from bricks...

 St. Mary's church - Marienkirche - which in fact was begun in the first quarter of the 14th century and thus predates the monastery itself: when the charterhouse was established it was taken over for use as the monastery church. It was extended several times, and in 1400 the polygonal quire was added. The tower, with an inscribed sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 tablet over the portal, was not added until 1761.

Sources

• Jarchov, Otto, 1978: Die Klostergrundherrschaft Ahrensbök, in Jahrbuch für Heimatkunde, Eutin 1978, pp. 30-38
• Neugebauer, W., 1957: Schönes Holstein, pp. 84-85. Lübecker Nachrichten
  Lübecker Nachrichten
  The Lübecker Nachrichten is a regional daily newspaper in Germany, covering Schleswig-Holstein and western Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is, along with the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag and the Kieler Nachrichten, one of the largest daily newspapers in Schleswig-Holstein.LN appears daily...
  
  : Lübeck
• Rönnpag, Otto, 1992: Das Kartäuserkloster in Ahrensbök, in Jahrbuch für Heimatkunde, Eutin 1992, pp. 88-92