Women Building Europe
The international influences of the Essen Women's Abbey (conference)
Priceless items crafted in gold from the Essen Women's Abbey - a highly ornate cross, the Mathilden Cross, a crucifix nail relic and the Theophanu book cover / Photo: Nicole Cronauge
In the past, the most powerful women in the region we know today as the Ruhr Metropolis were perhaps Essen's abbesses. Indeed, the abbesses and princess-abbesses of the Essen Women's Abbey held sway not only within the abbey's walls. For almost one thousand years, from 850 to 1802, the Essen Women's Abbey ruled and shaped a sphere of influence between the Ruhr and the Emscher with additional tenures in the surrounding areas.
In November an international conference in cooperation with the town of Thorn, DIE WOLFSBURG Catholic Academy and the Essen Cathedral Treasury will explore the almost 1,000-year-old history of the Essen Women's Abbey and establish new networks enabling further research into women's abbeys.
The Essen Women's Abbey played a key role in the region's spiritual and cultural development. Politics, economic and the administration of the region were determined here; new ideas for education were developed and European intellectual history was recorded and preserved.
Even today, the Essen Cathedral Treasury and its unique masterpieces dating back to the Ottoman era speak of the wealth and power of Essen's pious female rulers. The Essen Women's Abbey was not Europe’s only female spiritual centre of power, however. It enjoyed close ties with similar institutions in Brescia (Italy), Remiremont (Lorraine, France) and Nivelles (Belgium). The conference programme will investigate these ties and the key locations of abbey life in Essen, examining the Cathedral Treasury, the Münsterkirche and the palace in Borbeck as the Abbess's place of residence, all of which played a role in the history of the Abbey.
Women Building Europe
November 4-7, 2010
Partners: DIE WOLFSBURG Catholic Academy, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen Cathedral Treasury
You can find additional information (in German) at:
www.kultur-im-bistum-essen-2010.de