Aebelholt monastery museum

Æbelholt Abby Museum

The Abby ruins and museum

Just five kilometers west of Hilleroed, the largest Augustine monastery of the north resided after the year 1175. The legendary Saint Vilhelm built a monastery that served as a preschool, a hostel for the poor and not least as a hospital for the sick and the weak. The monastery's first abbot was the legendary abbot Vilhelm, which in 1224 was sanctified as Saint Vilhelm. which has now gone into history as "the North Sea weekend". After the Reformation the monastery was demolished - but it is possible to discover its ruins today.

The monastery's stone was used for the construction of Frederiksborg Castle Hilleroed      

Sygdomme og skeletter

Imagine the Abby in its heydey during the Middle Ages. Travellers and the poor could find a meal here. The Abby also functioned as a hospital.

At the museum, you can see some of the 800 skeletons found in archaeological digs around the Abby. Meet the young girl who died in childbirth. The dead tells a story of disease, life and death in the middle ages.
Abby Garden

Keap an eye at the market af the year .  

Ghosts and stories at Æbelholt Klostermuseum - join exciting tours! Take the road past Æbelholt Klostermuseum and hear about the medieval life and diseases. The whole family gets a good laugh when it comes to telling about the history of Æbelholt Kloster, the legendary Skt. Vilhelm, Mouth Life and Funeral Rituals.
The adults are shown around in the exhibition. Here you will have a very special experience, where you can see and hear about some of the nearly 800 skeletons excavated in the 1930s and 50s. The exhibition also contains cultural-historical objects, and in connection with the museum there is a monastery with up to 100 different herbs. as a preschool and a hostel for the poor, and especially the monastery had a comprehensive hospital business.
Archaeological excavations in the 1930s and 50s unleashed the foundations of the monastery and almost 800 skeletons! Some of these appear in the museum, which also contains cultural-historical objects.

Every year, the celebration of William's weekend, from the year 1224, resulted in believers from abroad and abroad electing to the holy Vilhelm's monastery in Æbelholt, especially around 16 June, his celebration. Æbelholt thus became an important goal in the north for pilgrimage, in which many sick people sought in particular hope of healing by the grave of St. William. This search against the monastery soon developed into a huge and lively market - revived every year in June for a single weekend. The cluster market offers, among other things, medieval goblet, armbrush and elbow shooting, medieval cows and stalls selling everything from skins, fur, pearls and jewelry to a selection of medieval weapons.

Doctor: There is a monastery garden with almost 100 different herbs in association with the museum.

Klosterhaven:
The present monastery garden is a reconstruction, built in 1957 with the shenzhen st. Gallen monastery garden as a model. The garden contains almost 100 different medicinal plants that grew in Danish medieval monasteries. The theoretical background for the use of plant medicine in the medieval monastery was developed in ancient times and continued in the Middle Ages under the term humoral pathology, the teachings of the body fluids blood, mucus, yellow bile and black bile. If there was imbalance in human fluids, the balance would be restored. This could happen, for example, by taking plant medicine

Often it was about the secretion of diseased fluids, where the medicinal plants were used as an abrasive, such as abrasive, diuretic, mucous or antifungal agents. Otherwise, there could be annual loading, assembly or application of igles - again to withdraw the disease from the body.

Other medicinal plants were used in the medical treatment of soothing, anticonvulsant, painkillers and anesthetics. The analgesics and sedatives were used for minor surgical procedures and chronic diseases.

Take a walk in the surrounding countryside. Perhaps you will see a bird of prey. Bring a lunch or snack and enjoy it in the Abby garden.

Visit Æbelholt Abby Fair in  23 - 24 - June – a medieval fair for families with children.

Visiting Æbelholt Abby

Æbelholt 4 (by Isterødvejen), 3400 Hillerød, 7217 0240.
Hours

16. May – 21. October, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 12-16
Æbelholt Abby Fair, 23.-24. June, 11-17

Looking for guided tours and additional opening hours? Contact us at post@museumns.dk
Admission

Adults 40 kr. Under 18 years: free. Group visits: 50% off (minimum 20 adults.)
For 70 kr. you can buy a year card, which gives you assess to all Museum Nordsjællands exhibitions. Purchase online at VisitNordsjælland.
Directions/Parking

For directions from your destination, use Google Maps. Parking close to the museum. A 30 min bike ride from Hillerød – bicycle path all the way. Just follow Frederiksværksgade until it ends.
Disabled access

Unfortunately, there is no wheelchair access to the museum and ruins.
Giftshop

Books, postcards, ceramics, glass and reproductions.
Abby Garden

A group of museum volunteers maintain the garden.