Stamp point 59 / Klostergrund Michaelstein

Michaelstein Monastery is located between Blankenburg and Heimburg in the water-rich Klostergrund.

At the begin­ning of the 12th cen­tu­ry, the gen­er­al chap­ter of the still young Cis­ter­cian order decid­ed that no monas­ter­ies could be built in towns, for­ti­fied places and vil­lages. This law was also fol­lowed here in the Harz Moun­tains when the monastery ded­i­cat­ed to St. Michael the Archangel was built. 

As at the time of its foun­da­tion (1146), Michael­stein is still sit­u­at­ed away from the urban life of Blanken­burg in an idyl­lic loca­tion on the edge of the Harz Moun­tains. It expe­ri­enced a long peri­od of eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty in the Mid­dle Ages and its abbots were repeat­ed­ly called upon by the popes to car­ry out eccle­si­as­ti­cal mis­sions. Even back then, fish farm­ing was car­ried out in the spe­cial­ly cre­at­ed ponds. 

The last Catholic abbot resigned in 1543. The Counts of Blanken­burg estab­lished a monastery school, which con­tin­ued to exist even after the Dukes of Brunswick took over. At the begin­ning of the 18th cen­tu­ry, Duke Lud­wig-Rudolf had exten­sive build­ing work car­ried out and estab­lished a sem­i­nary for preachers. 

After the French for­eign rule, Michael­stein only had eco­nom­ic func­tions, which the monastery estate retained under var­i­ous legal enti­ties even after the so-called land reform.

Today, the Sax­ony-Anhalt Music Acad­e­my for Edu­ca­tion and Per­for­mance Prac­tice is based here. The monastery offers a rich pro­gram of events and is a pop­u­lar excur­sion des­ti­na­tion on the Romanesque Road. 

In 1880, a trout, char and loach farm was set up at the monastery, which is still run pri­vate­ly today. A stop at the “Kloster­fis­ch­er” restau­rant or the small “Wan­der­gast­stätte” with fish shop is high­ly recommended. 

Park­ing spaces are avail­able at the monastery, from where you can start the hike through the monastery grounds to the stamp box. The stamp box is locat­ed to the right of the dam of the third pond at an infor­ma­tion board. 

We rec­om­mend con­tin­u­ing the hike to HWN 87 Volk­marskeller and expe­ri­enc­ing the ori­gins of the Michael­stein monastery in the nat­ur­al cave there.