Cismar between Monastic Culture and Nature Discoveries

Cismar combines an impressive monastic history with unusual nature experiences. Those planning a trip featuring cultural discoveries, peaceful sightseeing and distinctive regional impressions will find several different focal points here for planning their days. When choosing your holiday apartment, you can therefore consider whether you would primarily like to learn about monastic culture, visit natural history exhibitions or plan a stay around the annual monastery festival.

Cismar Monastery and the Famous Altar

Cismar Monastery was founded in 1231. To this day, the complex shapes the character of the village. The monastery is considered one of the most significant buildings of the early Gothic period in Lübeck and of northern German brick architecture. A particular attraction is the famous Cismar Altar. It is still located at its original site in the choir of the monastery church.

Five audio stations on the monastery grounds provide information about the history of the former Benedictine abbey. This allows your visit to be supplemented with additional historical context. For those interested in culture, this creates a travel itinerary that considers not only a single building but also the history of the place.

Haus der Natur with Exhibition and Herb Garden

Another focal point awaits you at Haus der Natur - Cismar. The natural history museum has more than 500 square metres of exhibition space and tens of thousands of individual items. Particularly unusual is the special collection of snail and seashells: Haus der Natur - Cismar displays more than 5,000 mollusc species in Germany’s largest mollusc exhibition.

The museum also includes a herb garden laid out according to historical models. During museum opening hours, you can see around 100 types and varieties of herbs there, including culinary herbs and traditional medicinal herbs from the monastery. A small monastery garden can also be explored at Haus der Natur - Cismar. The museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. These fixed times make it easier to fit a museum visit into your daily itinerary.

Special Events and Craft Traditions

The Cismar Monastery Festival takes place every year on the second weekend of August. The festival includes a three-day arts and crafts market where craftspeople and artists present their work and demonstrate how it is made. If you choose your accommodation for this period, you can include the event in your travel plans well in advance without focusing the rest of your stay exclusively on the festival.

Another special feature of the village is Jan Kollwitz’s studio. In his studio in Cismar, he creates ceramics using a traditional Japanese technique and has fired them in his original anagama wood-fired kiln since 1988. The monastery architecture, natural history, herb garden and ceramic art together create a varied picture of Cismar. If members of your travel group have different interests, you can alternate between cultural and natural history activities.

Compare Other Places

If you would like to compare other places with Cismar when planning your trip, you can also find Brenkenhagen and Suxdorf here. This allows you to tailor your search for a suitable holiday apartment to your preferred experiences and travel theme.

To the higher-level travel overview: Grömitz.