Nysted Friary

The friary was built just east of the town of Nysted in a traditional quadrilateral pattern with four wings around a central cloister, with a chapel forming one of the sides.

What makes this significant is that the hospital accommodated important members of the Danish court and noble families who were ill, among them bishop Valdemar Podebusk, Lyder Colbaltus Kabel, and Anders Sjundesen of Kærstrup, perhaps a descendant of the founders of the friary.

The next year the friary sold its remaining smaller properties including a smallholding and a field in nearby towns.

The single most important document remaining is the Nysted Martyrology, a list of saints' days for the entire year.

Many Danes vented their anger against the Catholic Church on the most visible representatives, the multiple monastic houses which were to be found in towns of any importance.

The Franciscans were targeted first because their constant appeals for food, clothing, money, and labor seemed an added burden to the tithes, fees, and rents already paid to the church by Danish peasants.

A story recorded about Nysted Friary at the time is that when the local district governor was required to make an inventory of its valuables, four gilded silver chalices, four gilded cups, and three small white silver spoons were missing, as the friars had buried their valuables to be retrieved in better times, but the governor demanded their return and confiscated them.