Nunneries
Sites that include active or former nunneries or convents (communities for religious women).
Connected Sites
| Site | Rationale | Link |
| Benedictine Convent of St. John | Still an active nunnery | |
| Caceres | Convento de San Pablo | |
| Ferapontov Monastery | The Monastery briefly was a nunnery, from 1904 to1924. (AB Ev) | |
| Ferrara | The Corpus Domini Monastery was founded in 1406. Saint Catherine of lived at the monastery most of her life from 1431 to 1456. The number of nuns progressively increased until it exceeded one hundred. Popular devotion, thanks to donations, allowed the construction of new buildings. Giovanni Romei, a banker linked to the Este family, donated his palace which stood a short distance away (Casa Romei) to the convent and in this way the religious complex reached the size of an entire city neighbourhood. | |
| Great Spa Towns of Europe | "Lichtenthal Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery in Lichtenthal in the town of Baden-Baden, Germany." | |
| Island of Patmos | Convent of Zoodochos Pigi | |
| Loire Valley | Abbey of Fontavraud "founded in 1101 by the itinerant preacher Robert of Arbrissel. The foundation flourished and became the center of a new monastic Order, the Order of Fontevrault. This order was composed of double monasteries, in which the community consisted of both men and women—in separate quarters of the abbey—all of which were subject to the authority of the Abbess of Fontevraud." (Wiki) See - | |
| Longobards in Italy | Torba – "Torba lost its military function and acquired a religious one, thanks to the settlement here in the 8th century of a group of Benedictine nuns who had the monastery built, adding to the original structures further buildings to accommodate the cells, the refectory and the oratory, as well as a portico of three arches to shelter travellers and pilgrims, and in the 11th century a new small church dedicated to the Virgin Mary" (Wiki) See - | |
| Lübeck | St-Anne-Kloster | |
| Medieval Monuments in Kosovo | Pecs and Gracanica were both converted to convents after WWII and as of 2017 each houses a community of nuns. | |
| Mexico City and Xochimilco | In the capital of the viceroyalty of Nueva España, there were a number of religious communities of nuns. All these convents were affected by the liberal reforms of the 1850s and 1860s and none of them operates now as a convent. Example: • The fmr. Convento de San Jerónimo, at Izazaga, now Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, was a nunnery of the order of the Hieronymites. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), one of the most important writers of the Spanish Siglo de Oro and considered the mother of Latin American literature, lived there. • The fmr. Convent of Regina Coeli, at Calle Regina #7, founded in 1573. It belonged to the order of the Conceptionists. • The Church and fmr. Convent of the Inmaculada Concepción, at Belisario Domínguez #3, the oldest nunnery in the city, established in 1540. Only the church survives. The convent was the site of the ghost story of the nun Úrsula del Espíritu Santo, who hanged herself in a peach tree and the story tells that her shadow appeared in the reflection of the fountain in the middle of the cloister. • Temple of Santa Catalina de Siena: at República de Argentina #29, was inaugurated in 1623 and belonged to the Dominican order. • Fmr. Convento de la Encarnación: at Luis González Obregón #18. It also belonged to the Dominican order of nuns. It is the present-day seat of the Ministry of Education. The temple remains to this day. • Church of San Lorenzo Diácono y Mártir: at Belisario Domínguez #28. It belonged to the Hieronymite nuns; the convent was founded in 1598. After the liberal reforms, the convent has housed a number of educational institutions, presently being the ESIME, Superior School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. | |
| Monastery of Horezu | (active) | |
| Mount Emei, including Leshan Giant Buddha | Fuhu Nunnery | |
| Mount Wutai | 5 nunneries | |
| Naples | Santa Chiara was built for the Clarisse nuns. | |
| Novodevichy Convent | Convent was a royal nunnery | |
| Old City of Jerusalem | Ecce Homo Convent belongs to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion. | |
| Quedlinburg | St. Mary Convent | |
| Québec | Convent of the Ursulines, a teaching order. | |
| Rammelsberg and Goslar | Goslar: Neuwerkkirche in Goslar belonged to a nunnery until the 1960'ies. | |
| Salzburg | Nonnberg Benedictine Nunnery (active) | |
| San Marino and Mount Titano | Chiesa di Santa Chiara and Convento delle Clarisse (Nomination file, p. 30) | |
| Santiago de Compostela | Monastery and Church of Santa María de Conxo : "(...) historical documents attribute the foundation to Archbishop Xelmírez, in order to house a community of nuns. (...) The nuns that inhabited it moved to the Monastery of Antealtares in the 15th century." | |
| Siena | Santa Marta is a former Augustinian convent for nuns, founded in 1328. | |
| Stralsund and Wismar | Kloster St. Annen und Brigitten in Stralsund | |
| Syracuse | Santa Lucia alla Badia | |
| Toledo | Convento de Santa Ursula | |
| Urbino | The convent of Saint Catherine of Alexandria | |
| Val di Noto | Badia di Sant'Agata in Catania | |
| Vatican City | Mater Ecclesiae "founded by Pope John Paul II in order to have a community of nuns of an enclosed religious order inside Vatican City, who were to pray for the pope in his service to the Catholic Church. This task was, at the beginning, entrusted to the nuns of the Order of St. Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. This assignment, however, was shifted every five years to another female monastic order, who would then occupy the monastery." See - | |
| Venice and its Lagoon | San Zaccaria "The church was originally attached to a Benedictine monastery of nuns also founded by Participazio and various other doges of the family. The nuns of this monastery mostly came from prominent noble families of the city and had a reputation for laxness in their observance of the monastic enclosure." (Wiki) See - |
Suggestions?
Do you know of another WHS we could connect to Nunneries?
A connection should:
- Not be "self evident"
- Link at least 3 different sites
- Not duplicate or merely subdivide the "Category" assignment already identified on this site.
- Add some knowledge or insight (whether significant or trivial!) about WHS for the users of this site
- Be explained, with reference to a source