Appingen Abbey

Originally the family came from this place, but left after the town was cut off from the sea by embankments and so gradually lost its importance to Greetsiel, the future seat of the Cirksena.

The monastery in Appingen was the only branch of the Carmelites in East Frisia and the last to be founded in the region overall.

In addition to the existing church, a stone house for the monks and a mill were built, for which the Cirksena also had rights of use.

Shortly before the Reformation, the monastery of Aten, in the present-day borough of Nordenham, was planted by Appingen.

In 1530 the monastery of Balthasar von Esen was burned in one of his many feuds with the counts of East Frisia, but not completely destroyed like nearby Dykhusen Abbey of the Dominican Order.