Heiligengrabe

Heiligengrabe
Church in Grabow Church in Grabow
Coat of arms of Heiligengrabe Coat of arms
Heiligengrabe
Location of Heiligengrabe within Ostprignitz-Ruppin district 250px
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Ostprignitz-Ruppin
Government
• Mayor	Egmont Hamelow (Wählergruppe Heiligengraber Land)
Area
• Total	232.30 km2 (89.69 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)
• Total	4,505
• Density	19/km2 (50/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	16909
Dialling codes	033962
Vehicle registration	OPR
Website	www.heiligengrabe.de

Heiligengrabe is a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany.

Geography

The municipality counts 13 villages (Ortsteil): Blandikow, Blesendorf, Blumenthal, Grabow bei Blumenthal, Herzsprung, Jabel, Königsberg, Liebenthal, Maulbeerwalde, Papenbruch, Rosenwinkel, Wernikow and Zaatzke.

Architecture

File:Heiligengrabe Kraeutergarten.jpg

Herb garden, Convent building and Blood Chapel

Abbey

Heiligengrabe Abbey (literally in English: Holy Sepulchre; formerly also known as Techow) was founded here as a Cistercian nunnery in 1289 by Heinrich, Bishop of Havelberg and the Margrave Otto of Brandenburg, initially for 12 nuns. It held an important relic in the form of a Bleeding Host which, so it was said, had been violated in a host desecration by a Jew.

The nunnery acquired considerable wealth and estates in the area, partly through the revenue from pilgrims to the Bleeding Host, and partly through donations from the noble families round about, especially when one of their daughters entered the convent. Among the nuns of local great houses were members of the families Gans zu Putlitz, von Quitzow, von Rohr, von Winterfeld and von Blumenthal. Some of the abbesses were great characters. The Abbess Henriette von Winterfeldt had a quarrel with the Duke of Mecklenburg, who refused to pay a debt to the abbey. So she borrowed a large artillery piece and declared war on Mecklenburg, bombarding it across the nearby frontier. At the time of the Lutheran Reformation, Abbess Anna von Quitzow would have nothing to do with the new denomination, and refused to pay tax.

After the Reformation the prior function of the nunnery, to provide sustenance for unmarried women mostly from local noble families, wasn't to be given up with its secularisation. So the formerly Roman Catholic nunnery turned into a Lutheran women's convent (German: das Stift, more particular: Damenstift (German), literally in English: Ladies' foundation), with its conventuals now called secular canonesses (Stiftsdamen). The canonesses of nobility were obliged to show sixteen quarterings in their arms before being permitted to enter.

• Abbey
• Heiligengrabe Abtei.jpg

  Convent building

• Heiligengrabe Blutkapelle.jpg

  Blood Chapel

• Heiligengrabe Klosterhof.jpg

  Cloister

Other infrastructures

In Heiligengrabe is the Blumenthal Observation Tower.

Demography

• Bevölkerungsentwicklung Heiligengrabe.pdf

  Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi rule; Red Background: Time of Communist rule)

• Bevölkerungsprognosen Heiligengrabe.pdf

  Recent Population Development (Blue Line) and Forecasts

Gallery

• Blumenthal church.jpg

  Church in Blumenthal

• Blumenthal Aussichtsturm.jpg

  View tower in Blumenthal

• Blumenthal Horst Park.jpg

  Palace grounds in Blumenthal-Horst

• Glienicke Rundling.jpg

  Rundling Glienicke

• Glienicke Schinkel church.jpg

  Church in Glienicke

• Jabel Rundling.jpg

  Rundling Jabel

• Jabel church 2013.jpg

  Church in Jabel

• Jabel Altlutherische Kirche.jpg

  Church in Jabel

• Heiligengrabe Koenigsberg church.jpg

  Church in Königsberg

External links

Media related to Heiligengrabe at Wikimedia Commons