Rein Abbey, Indre Fosen

Trøndelag · Norway · Monastery

Duke Skule founded the nunnery to escape death. His daughter, a widowed queen, moved in – and the walls still stand, grown into a working farm.

In 1226 Duke Skule Bårdsson lay mortally ill in Nidaros and made a vow: he gave away Rein, his paternal inheritance, built a stone church there and founded a convent. His half-sister Sigrid became its first abbess. Rein became a house for highborn women, and in 1264 Skule's own daughter Margrete, widow of King Håkon Håkonsson, moved in behind its walls. Skule himself ended as a rebel king and was killed in 1240. The convent was dissolved at the Reformation in 1537, and the strangest thing about the place today is that it was never wholly abandoned: the remains of the abbey church still stand in the middle of the farmyard, partly built into the main house of the estate. People here live, literally, inside a medieval monastery.

FAQ

Where is Rein Abbey, Indre Fosen located?

Rein Abbey, Indre Fosen is in Trøndelag, Norway.