Dünamünde (Daugavgrīva) Monastery – Mother House to the Padise Monastery

he Christianisation and colonisation efforts in Old Livonia first focused on the lands on the lower reaches of the Daugava (Düna) where the Cistercians established their monastery of Daugavgrīva (in German: Dünamünde) near the mouth of the river, on its right bank.

The documents recording the foundation of the monastery have not survived. Franz Winter argued that Henry of Livonia named two dates for the establishment of Dünamünde Monastery, 1202 and 1205, and these dates were used by later researchers. As a matter of fact, on the occasion of Albert’s fourth year as bishop of Riga (1202) Henry looked back at several earlier events (including Meinhard’s activities), but he also looked ahead to the subsequent events. For example, Henry recorded that it was Albert who appointed Theoderich the first abbot of the monastery, but he also wrote that in 1202 Albert travelled to Germany. Regarding the foundation of the monastery, we should also consider the document of 12 October 1204, in which Pope Innocent supported Albert’s request to establish three religious orders in Livonia. One of them was the Cistercian order. Thus the only possible conclusion we can draw is that in autumn 1204 there were no Cistercian monasteries in Old Livonia yet. The Dünamünde Monastery must have been founded in 1205, when Bishop Albert appointed Theoderich as the first abbot.

he monastic community probably settled at the new monastery in 1208. The time discrepancy between the foundation of the monastery and its settlement can be explained with a Cistercian regulation which prescribed that the community could move into the monastery only after the necessary premises had been built. It must be added that some writers have even claimed that Chronicon Dunamundense recorded the foundation date as of 1211. In fact, the chronicle mentioned the construction and not the foundation of the monastery: Anno domini 1211 constructa est abbatia dunemundensis in monte sancti nicholai (Anno domini 1211 the monastery of Dünamünde was built on the hill of St. Nicholas). It is possible that this refers to the date of the completion of the monastic buildings.

The Dünamünde Monastery was of a line of the Abbey of Morimond. It may have been founded as a daughter house to Marienfeld; the confusion about the level of subjection was resolved when the General Chapter decided in 1239 that the Dünamünde Monastery was a dependency of the mother house of Pforta. But this was not to remain so. In 1304 the Benedictine Stolpe Abbey became part of the Cistercian Order and was put under the authority of Pforta monastery. The Stolpe Abbey acquired Dünamünde ja Kärkna, the two daughter monasteries of Pforta as “a dowry”.

ritten records about Dünamünde Monastery are quite scarce. There is repeated mention of destruction. The Curonians and Semigallians destroyed the monastery in 1228, which was, however, quickly rebult. Another destruction was recorded in Chronicon Dunamundense in 1263, when the monastery was burnt down.

In 1236 Pope Gregory IX took Dünamünde under the protection of St. Peter and himself. This was not something very special but quite common: in 1230–1240 the Ösel-Wiek bishopric and Bishop of the Semigallians and the cathedral chapter stood under the aegis of Papacy and St. Peter, the same applies to Lübeck harbour, Kingdom of Denmark, Prince Daniel of Galicia-Volhynia and the Teutonic Order.

he Dünamünde Monastery was mainly involved in agriculture. The monastery had extensive landholdings not only in St. Mary’s Land but also in Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pomerania and Brandenburg in northern Germany, some of them were granges, i.e. monastic land estates. The monastery owned at least three town houses in Riga, Tallinn and Parchim in Mecklenburg, which were also  involved in economic activity.

The Dünamünde Monastery sat at a very strategic location.  From the estuary of the Daugava it was possible to control and, if necessary, to block the shipping traffic from Riga to the Western countries. This key position guaranteed a place of authority to the monastery among the 13th century Old-Livonian power elite.

his strategic sweet spot proved fateful to the monastery: in the early 14th century it was sold to the Livonian Order and the monks were transferred to the Padise Monastery.

The sales process was quite long. It was on the agenda of a General Chapter meeting in  1303,  but Pope John XXII approved the sale only in 1319. The monastery, however, had been closed diown and the buildings given to the Livonian Order already in 1305. These events are recorded in two documents, though both of them are copies. All real estate of the monastery was sold  to the Livonian Order: the buildings and landholdings in Livonia as well as the properties in Riga. 13 monks (including the abbot) and seven servants (servientes) remained at Dünamünde.

This information might lead to some initial misunderstanding, since the whole monastic community remained (in medieval monasticism the community imitated Christ and the twelve apostles). But it is not surprising really. From the time of Bernard of Clairvaux the Cistercians had had a regulation that the community could move to a new monastery only if the necessary rooms were completed. Thus it seems that the monks had to find lodgings somewhere before the new monastic buildings were constructed at Padise. Anyway, the Dünamünde Monastery had ceased to exist. The Livonian Order began to convert the monastic buildings into a castle for the Komtur.

At first it might seem that by selling the monastery the Cistercians yielded to a superior strength or force. But it is also clear that the monastery which was situated in the vicinity of intensive traffic flow did not fulfill the Cistercian ideal of living far from the worldly noise.