The cloister ruin Disibodenberg lies in the district Bad Kreuznach at the mouth of the Glan into the Nahe near Odernheim. The Disibodenberg - about 170 m high – lies about 50 km remotely of Rüdesheim am Rhein. Now the area of the former cloister is a small park. About 150 years ago the owner at that time dibbled trees and shrubs between the ruins which control today the mountain. This park is an oasis of the silence and the memory, the cloister ruins remind of the meaning of the place in the past times. On a signposted way the remained rests of the buildings are explained on boards. In 1989 the ruin area was assigned from the current owners to a specially founded endowment, "Disibodenberger Scivias-Stiftung" which received her name after one of the most important writings of the Hildegard von Bingen. In 2-nd half of the 20-th century excavations and restoration measures were carried out to the investigation and preservation of the ruins and their history; the most important and most interesting finds are issued in a small museum.

History: The eponym of the Disibodenberg was probably born around 600 A.D. in Ireland. After devout activity in Ireland and in the Frankish west empire he was used by the bishop in Mainz on the Disibodenberg where he established a hermitage with some companions. He probably died 674 and was buried on the mountain named after him. Around 745 a church stood there under bishop Bonifatius, later there was founded besides a Benedictines cloister. After destruction of these arrangements and expulsion of the monks at the moment of the Hungarians raids archbishop Willigis let establish around 1000 a new church and the necessary buildings for 12 canons (Austin canons), the archbishop was here also a lord of the manor and court man.

Archbishop Ruthard von Mainz, who was Benedictine, started to appoint again Benedictines instead of the Austin canons and began with the construction of a new cloister arrangement around 1000. Ruthard also founded a women hermitage which was escorted by countess Jutta from the family of the counts of Sponheim. In 1112 Hildegard (von Bingen) was given at the age of 14 years by her richly prosperous parents from Bermersheim near Alzey in this women hermitage; the mother of Hildegard came from the knight and man gender of Merxheim which had a relation to the Sponheim counts.

After the death of the countess Jutta von Sponheim Hildegard became head ("master") of the women hermitage in 1136. Around 1150 Hildegard moved with 20 nuns from the Disibodenberg to Bingen and founded there on the Rupertsberg an der Nahe an own Benedictines cloister. After some years a daughter cloister followed in Eibingen.

In 1259 the cloister Disibodenberg was assigned after preceding destruction by the archbishop in Mainz to the Cistercians in the cloister Otterberg near Kaiserslautern for which the cloister Eberbach in the Rheingau was responsible in many respects under the rules of the order. After further destructions in the 15-th and 16-th century by troops of the electors of the Palatinate, also in conjunction with the Reformation, the cloister was given up and handed over to the duke of Zweibrücken in 1559.

Literature: Dr. Werner Vogt, history of the Disibodenberg an der Nahe, 4-th edition in 2004 with other proofs.