Ahrensbök

Ahrensbök is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 17-km northwest of Lübeck, and 45-km southeast of Kiel.HistoryAhrensbök came into existence after the foundation here of a pilgrimage chapel in 1280. The first documentary reference to the settlement dates from 1328. In 1348 the place was devastated by the Black Death.In 1397 the Carthusians founded a monastery here, Ahrensbök Charterhouse, which helped the place grow in prominence. In 1564 the Amt Ahrensbök, or district of Ahrensbök, was established as a civil administration unit, and between 1593 and 1601 a castle was built, Schloss Hoppenbrook, on the site and with the materials of the charterhouse, which had been secularised in the 1580s during the Protestant Reformation and subsequently demolished. In 1623 Schloss Hoppenbrook became for a few years the residence of the newly established Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön, until the completion of the dukes' new castle at Plön in 1636, after which Schloss Hoppenbrook became a secondary residence. In 1746 Duke Friedrich Karl abolished serfdom in his duchy. In 1765, after the death of his widow, the castle was demolished.