Bottenbroich Abbey

Between 1480 and 1486 the monks of Bottenbroich established Mariawald Abbey to oversee another Marian pilgrimage site.

In 1951 the entire village of Bottenbroich, including the former monastic church and all other structural remains of the monastery, was demolished to make way for the Frechen brown coal strip mine (Tagebau), and the inhabitants moved to Neu-Bottenbroich.

The medieval Pietà is now situated in the Church of the Assumption (Mariä Himmelfahrt) in Grefrath in Frechen.

In 2004 the site of the church, which in the meantime had been re-cultivated, was named Marienfeld in commemoration of its former significance as a pilgrimage destination.

In September 2006 in the presence of the monks of Stiepel Priory in Bochum a sundial was set up as a memorial in the Marienfeld on the site of the former monastery, bearing the arms of Morimond Abbey, mother house of Kamp Abbey.