Alvastra, Sweden
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Alvastra is a small village in Ödeshög Municipality in eastern Sweden. It is known for being the seat of the Cistercian Alvastra Abbey in the Middle Ages, established in 1143 by French monks. After the Swedish Lutheran reformation in the 1530s, the monastery was demolished, never to be rebuilt.
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Alvastra as it looked in Suecia antiqua et hodierna, around 1700.
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Alvastra Monastery
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Alvastra monastery was founded in 1143 by French monks who belonged to the Cistercian Order. A number of monks and lay brothers left the French monastery of Clairvaux Abbey. It was founded at Alvastra in Västra Tollstad parish in Ödeshög municipality on the site of the donation of land from King Sverker I of Sweden. The monastery church was inaugurated in 1185. For nearly 400 years Alvastra monastery prospered. Varnhem Abbey (Varnhems kloster) at Varnhem in Västergötland was founded around 1150 by monks of the Cistercian Order from Alvastra Abbey. Stefan, Archbishop of Uppsala (Stephanus) was a Cistercian monk from Alvastra monastery.
Alvastra monastery was dissolved and appropriated by the Crown at the time of the Protestant Reformation in accordance with the Reduction of Gustav I of Sweden. |
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