Klooster Ter Apel

Ter Apel was founded in 1465 as a house of Crosier canons on a sandy ridge in the Westerwolde bog country, and it is the only late-medieval rural monastery in the Netherlands still standing more or less complete - almost every other Dutch monastery was destroyed at the Reformation or later. It survived because after 1600 the buildings were kept in use as a Protestant parsonage and church rather than demolished. What remains is three wings around a cloister with vaulted walks, the church with a rood screen, choir stalls and a sacrament house, and the herb and monastery gardens replanted to old plans. It has been a museum since 1933. Around it is woodland and the restored Westerwolde stream valley, and the German border is a couple of kilometres away. The setting - a monastery in the woods with no town around it - is much of the point.

History

In 1464 Jacobus Wiltingh, pastor of Garrelsweer, left his settlement of Apell in Westerwolde to the Order of the Holy Cross on condition that a monastery be built there. In May 1465 the order's General Chapter, meeting in Huy, accepted the gift, and the monastery at Bentlage near Rheine sent four priests and several lay brothers to found it (Wikipedia, Ter Apel Monastery).

Highlights

• The only rural monastery left - late medieval, standing near-complete since 1465.
• A vaulted cloister - three wings around the walk with the church attached.
• Choir stalls and a sacrament house - the medieval church fittings surviving.
• Replanted gardens - herb and monastery beds to old plans.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

Closed Mondays and reduced in winter. It is remote - public transport is slow and infrequent. The village of Ter Apel is small. The buildings are simple; the significance is that they exist at all.

Nearby

The Westerwolde stream valley is around it; Bargerveen is south-west.

Key facts