Soeterbeeck Monastery - Deursen-Dennenburg

Soeterbeeck is the former monastery of the Augustinian Sisters of Windesheim, located in Deursen near Ravenstein. The sisters were originally based in Nuenen (also known as Nederwetten), but in 1732 they had to leave and found a new location in the Free Land of Ravenstein, which was more religiously tolerant than many surrounding areas.

On the estate “Den Bogaert” they built their new home, and soon the first monastery wings arose. The oldest parts of the current complex date from 1733. Over the centuries they expanded, added a neo-Gothic chapel (around 1906) and improved the building.

The sisters lived in the tradition of the Modern Devotion, a spirituality that combined simplicity, suffering, prayer and service. They had little contact with the outside world: Soeterbeeck functioned as an enclosed monastery, where the sisters lived in seclusion. Part of their income came from laundry work – they took care of church linens.

Soeterbeeck remained active as a monastery until 1997. After that, it was donated to Radboud University Nijmegen, which carefully restored the complex and turned it into a meeting, study and conference centre. Many original elements have been preserved: corridors, monastic cells and artworks that recall centuries of spiritual life within the monastery walls.