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The Rupertsberg near Bingen
On the left bank of the Nahe river near Bingen, lies the Rupertsberg. According
to legend, it is named for St. Rupertus who built a chapel there in the second
half of the 7th century. The Rupertsburg gained world fame through
Hildegard von Bingen
(1098-1179) who was one of the most important women of the
middle ages and the founder of the 'Cloister Rupertsberg'. She was a woman
who knew how to succeed in her goals against the powerful forces of her time
and was astoundingly "modern" in many of her ideas. Today, the rather modest
Rupertsburg is difficult to find in the extensively built up town of Bingerbrück.
Even from the outlook tower of Klopp castle, it is hard to make out. Of course
this was totally different in the summer of 1147 when Hildegard, along with 18
other women from the nearby
Disibodenberg cloister,
arrived here to found their own cloister over the grave of St. Rupertus. This
did not happen without resistance from the official church, though. It was
Hildegard's charismatic personality along with her far sighted persistance which
finally brought success to this endeavor. On May 22nd of the year 1158, the
archbishop Arnold of Mainz granted it official recognition as a Benedictine
cloister. A letter of protection from Emperor Friederich Barbarossa in the year
1163, ensured the cloister politically.
Photo: We see today's Eibingen monastery, which Hildegard von Bingen had
acquired in 1165 as «Rupertsberg Branch» for the extension of her
Rupertsberg monastery. Eibingen Monastery is located not far from Bingen on the
opposite side of the Rhine and was visited by Hildegard twice a week.
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