After the original Benedictine Abbey on the Altmünster Plateau had been destroyed in 1542, the monks built a new abbey or Neumünster in 1606 in the Grund. This in turn was destroyed by fire in 1684 but was rebuilt on the same site in 1688 and extended in 1720. After the French revolution, it served as a police station and prison before becoming a barracks for the Prussians after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. From 1867, it once again became a state prison. During World War II, the Nazis used the Abbey to imprison political resisters to their occupation of Luxembourg. Among the most notable of those political prisoners was Luxembourg's best-known sculptor Lucien Wercollier.
Today Neumünster Abbey is a public meeting place and cultural centre. Since 1997, it has been the home of the European Institute of Cultural Routes.
References:House of the Blackheads (Melngalvju nams) is a building situated in the old town of Riga. The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornaments.
The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999. Today the House of Blackheads serves as a museum and sometimes concert hall.