Klarenthal Abbey

Klarenthal Abbey was established in 1298 by Count Adolf of Nassau (born before 1250; died July 2, 1298), who was elected King of Germany on May 5, 1292.

The monastery was to serve as a tomb for the House of Nassau, and Adolf's wife Queen Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg and many of his descendants were buried here.

During the siege of Wiesbaden by Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1318, Klarenthal Abbey was looted and destroyed.

The local gentry, from which most of the nuns once came, found itself falling behind the middle class economically and no longer wanted to pay the high entrance fees for admission to the monastery.

The Protestant Reformation, which turned its back on the monastic life, sounded its death knell in the areas where it prevailed, legitimizing the seizure of the monasteries by the local lord.

This, however, did not legally abolish the monastery since, according to the Augsburg Interim, the Count needed the Pope's consent.

Initially, the assets of Klarenthal Abbey were used to assist the poor, run by priests and teachers paid by the Countship.

In 1632 or 1650, the epitaphs of the Counts of Nassau and their relatives interred at Klarenthal were dismantled and set up in the Mauritius Church (Wiesbaden) [de], where they would later be destroyed in the Great Fire of 1850.

In 1730, the small settlement, which had formed around the factory, erected a chapel, which was overseen by a pastor from Wiesbaden.