Rein Abbey, Norway

It was built on a prominent elevation in an otherwise flat landscape on the ancestral estate of Duke Skule Bårdsson, possibly in fulfilment of a vow after his recovery from an illness.

His daughter, Queen Margret of Norway, wife of King Håkon Håkonsson, spent her last years there.

In 1531 the powerful and wealthy Ingerd Ottesdatter Rømer, otherwise Ingrid til Austrått, a leader of the Norwegian aristocracy, had herself elected administrator of the abbey.

She was thus able to protect the remaining members of the community, as well as acquiring the abbey's estates, which continued in the possession of her descendants.

[8][9][10] In the trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter written by Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset, the eponymous heroine spends her final years as a corrodian in Rein Abbey at the time of Black Death in Norway 1349.