Tautra Abbey

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Tautra Abbey (Tautra Mariakloster) is a Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) nunnery on the island of Tautra on the Trondheimfjord in Trøndelag, central Norway.

[edit] First foundation

Ruins of the nave and the portal in the west front

A Cistercian monastery was founded here, Tautra or Tuterø Abbey, in 1207, by monks from Lyse Abbey near Bergen. The site was an attractive one, and the earlier foundation of Munkeby Abbey seems to have been transferred here shortly after the foundation. The abbey grew wealthy and powerful, and its abbots often played a major part in Norwegian politics. Tautra Abbey was dissolved during the Reformation in 1537, its lands passing to the Crown, but the sizeable ruins of the church are still to be seen.

[edit] Second foundation

Transitional building of the new abbey with chapel and guest house

The present Tautra Abbey or Tautra Mariakloster is a newly founded Trappist nunnery, and is the first permanent Cistercian settlement in Norway since the Reformation. It was founded in 1999, near the ruins of the medieval monastery. The foundation stone was laid by Queen Sonja of Norway on 23 May 2003. The new abbey was granted autonomy on 26 May 2006.

The seven Trappist nuns who established the nunnery hope to be a point of contact and exchange between the Norwegian tradition and Cistercian spirituality.