Rühn Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery founded by Brunward, bishop of Schwerin in 1232. Already on May 29, 1292 the monastery was burned down completely. After reconstruction 30-40 nuns lived, prayed and worked there.
After the Reformation Duke Ulrich gave the monastery to his wife Elisabeth. She founded in Rühn the first girls' school in Mecklenburg. Numerous renovations and extensions were made then.
In the Thirty Years War the monastery was destroyed. During the age of the Duchess Sophie Agnes von Mecklenburg (1625-1694), it was rebuilt with a park with linden alley in the former monastery garden. Until 2008 the site changed hands several times and functioned for example as an orphan house. Since 2008 it has been owned by the Klosterverein Rühn e.V foundation.
The abbey church was completed in 1270.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.