Lehnin Abbey

St. Mary's Monastery Church is the former abbey church of Lehnin Monastery, about thirty kilometres southwest of Potsdam in the forested Zauche plateau. The monastery was founded in 1180 by Margrave Otto I of the Ascanian dynasty and was for centuries the most important religious centre of the March of Brandenburg; the Ascanians also chose it as their burial place. The three-aisled brick basilica is one of the earliest and largest of its kind in Brandenburg and combines a Romanesque transept with an early Gothic nave and choir. After the Reformation the convent was dissolved in 1542 and parts of the buildings fell into ruin; thorough restoration began in 1871. Since 1911 the site has hosted the Lutheran Luise Henriette Foundation. Today visitors walk through a cool, clearly articulated brick hall where Romanesque and Gothic phases sit side by side.