Gudhem Monastery
The Gudhem Abbey was a nunnery, about seven kilometers north of the Swedish city of Falköping on the outskirts of Gudhem .
In the middle of the 12th century a nunnery was founded in Gudhem, which belonged to the Cistercian order and was under the supervision of the nearby Varnhem Monastery . With the arrival of the queen widow Katarina after the death of King Erik the Lispelnde and Lahme the boom of the monastery began. The monastery complex was expanded, the monastery church rebuilt, enlarged and provided with selected stone carvings.
The monastery was given up during the Reformation . In 1529 the monastery building fell victim to a fire. A few years later it was given away as a fief with its associated goods. The monastery ruin was subsequently used as a quarry, u. a. to expand the nearby royal court.
Between 1928 and 1969 the ruins of the monastery complex were excavated and preserved.
The church of Gudhem is located directly next to the former monastery .
After the Swedish author Jan Guillou had made the monastery an important location in the historical novels of his Götaland trilogy (1998-2000), tourism increased sharply. A café and museum have been set up, and a pilgrimage route leads to the monastery and other neighboring locations in the trilogy.
Web links
Coordinates: 58 ° 14 '24.2 " N , 13 ° 33' 17.5" E