Ring Abbey (Ring Kloster), was a Benedictine nunnery in Skanderborg in Denmark, in operation from the 12th-century until the Danish Reformation. It was a large landowner and functioned as a girl school for daughters of the nobility.
History
Ring Abbey was likely founded in the 12th-century, possibly in the early 12th-century. It is mentioned in contemporary documents for the first time in 1203. The Abbey functioned mainly as a school for girls and a retirement home for elder women from the nobility.
Initially small, it became a substantial landowner through donations by the families of the noblewomen accepted as nuns in the Abbey: eventually, Ring Abbey owned estates over all of Jylland, mostly rented out to tenants of the peasantry, and had its own Birk (market place). The Abbey burnt down two times, in 1300 and in 1430, and was each time enlarged and rebuilt in stone.
During the Danish Reformation, Ring Abbey was confiscated by the crown and given to first Mogens Gøye and then Herluf Trolle, who was forced to promise to support the remaining nuns, who were allowed to live in the building for life. In 1571, Ring Abbey were incorporated into Skanderborg parish, and in 1579, it lost its Birk (market place). It is known that the Abbey building was used as a barn in 1610-23.