The abbey was founded in 1238 by Count
Adolf IV of Holstein as alternative accommodation for Benedictine monks from
Lübeck. In the mid-15th century it was one of the six original members of the influential
Bursfelde Congregation, a Benedictine reform movement. After three prosperous centuries, based largely on its possession of a relic of the blood of
Christ and a healing spring dedicated to
John the Baptist, which made it a centre of pilgrimage, it was dissolved in 1561 during the secularisation brought about by the
Reformation. The monastic library is preserved in the
Danish Royal Library in
Copenhagen. The
Brick Gothic abbey church is famous for its carved altar, dating from the early 14th century, still in place in the church. The other surviving buildings, after a wide variety of secular uses, now serve as a museum. ==References==