St. John's Abbey, Bergen

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St. John's Abbey, Bergen (Jonsklosteret i Bergen) was a house of Augustinian Canons located in Bergen, Norway.

[edit] History

St. John's Abbey, about which there is not a great deal of recorded information, was situated in the vicinity of the present Strandgaten-Tårnplass in Bergen. There is no certainty on the foundation date of the monastery, but it is generally assumed that it was established about the middle of the 12th century, although its existence is not recorded until 1208. It was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.

Throughout the 14th century it seems to have suffered financial problems. The community gradually dwindled during the 15th century. In 1450 its property was transferred to the cathedral chapter of Bergen.

In 1489 this part of the town suffered a serious fire, in which it seems that the monastery too burnt down. The church however survived, and gifts to it are recorded in the wills of Bergen citizens up to 1517. In 1552 the town of Bergen obtained the right to use the site of the church and churchyard to build a town hall, although the project never came about. After several fires the church was in ruins, and by the end of the 18th century nothing at all remained standing.

Some cellars from the abbey did survive into the 19th century, and L. D. Kluwer sketched a plan of the building remains in 1823. During building excavations in 1895 the remains of the abbey church were accidentally uncovered, and it is thus possible to locate this precisely. The churchyard was to the north and east of the church, towards Strandgaten.

It seems unlikely that there are now any further remains of these buildings to be found.