Qualla: Tautra Abbey

Tautra Abbey: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Keuk at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.0 de. On 25 March 1207, Cistercian monks from Lyse Abbey near Bergen consecrated a new monastery on the island of Tautra in the Trondheimsfjord. Nearly eight centuries later, on 25 March 2012, the monastery that had risen on the same island was elevated to a Major Priory in the Cistercian Order. The date was not a coincidence. Between those two March days lies one of the more remarkable stories in Norwegian religious history -- a monastic community that grew wealthy and politically powerful, was swept away by the Reformation, lay in ruins for over four hundred years, and then returned, this time from an unlikely direction: Dubuque, Iowa.

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Image: Keuk at German Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Tautra Abbey: Power on an Island

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antikvar Lorents D. KlÃ¼wer, 1817, Public domain. The original Tautra Abbey occupied a strategic and beautiful site in the Trondheimsfjord, part of what is now Frosta Municipality in Trondelag county. The monks who founded it came from Lyse Abbey, itself one of Norway's major Cistercian houses, and the new community quickly abso...

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Image: Antikvar Lorents D. KlÃ¼wer, 1817 | Public domain

Tautra Abbey: Stones That Survived

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GuoJunjun, CC BY-SA 3.0 no. The ruins of Tautra Abbey proved remarkably durable. The nave walls, the western portal, the north wall of the church -- these survived the centuries of abandonment better than many Norwegian medieval structures that received at least nominal care. Today the ruins are managed by ...

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Image: GuoJunjun | CC BY-SA 3.0 no

Tautra Abbey: Return from Iowa

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1999, something genuinely unexpected happened. A group of Trappistine nuns from Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa, founded a new monastic community on Tautra, near the medieval ruins. It was the first permanent Cistercian settlement in Norway since the Reforma...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

Tautra Abbey: The Circle Closes at Munkeby

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Beritjorgine, CC BY-SA 4.0. The story has one more turn. Near the site of Munkeby Abbey -- the community that was absorbed into Tautra in the thirteenth century -- a new foundation of Cistercian monks is being established. It will be the first new foundation by the Abbey of Citeaux, the motherhouse of the e...

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Image: Beritjorgine | CC BY-SA 4.0