Bakke Abbey
Encyclopedia
Bakke Abbey was a medieval nunnery in Trondheim
in Norway
.
The nunnery was dissolved in 1537 in the course of the Reformation
, although the nuns seem to have continued to live there for some years afterwards: the last abbess died in 1561. The buildings were burnt down by the Swedish Army in 1564, during the Northern Seven Years' War.
During work in a cellar in 1971, remains of walls were discovered. These seem to be from the north wall of the church, with the transept and a chapel. To the north of this, graves have been discovered. No traces have been found of the conventual buildings, which are assumed to have occupied the area to the south of the church.
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Nunnery
Bakke Abbey was founded not later than 1150, and possibly quite a long time earlier. It is not definitely known to which order the nuns belonged, but it seems likely that they were Benedictines.The nunnery was dissolved in 1537 in the course of 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...
, although the nuns seem to have continued to live there for some years afterwards: the last abbess died in 1561. The buildings were burnt down by the Swedish Army in 1564, during the Northern Seven Years' War.
After dissolution
The site was replaced by a farm known as Bakke gård and is now occupied by the properties between Innherredsveien 3 and Kirkegata.During work in a cellar in 1971, remains of walls were discovered. These seem to be from the north wall of the church, with the transept and a chapel. To the north of this, graves have been discovered. No traces have been found of the conventual buildings, which are assumed to have occupied the area to the south of the church.