Monasteries in Germany
Kamp Abbey
Kamp Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery founded in German territory. It was founded in 1123 by Friedrich I, Archbishop of Cologne, and settled from Morimond Abbey. As the first Cistercian foundation in the region it attracted great endowments and became very wealthy and powerful. It was extremely active in the foundation of daughter houses. Kamp was largely rebuilt in the 15th century but suffered extensive d ...
Founded: 1123 |
Location:
Kamp-Lintfort, Germany
Füssen Franciscan Monastery
The Franciscan Monastery was inaugurated in 1628, but damaged already in 1632 by the Swedish army. The restoration took place in the late 1600 and the new wing dates from 1712. The church of St. Stephen was built between 1763-1767. The monastery is the official end of the Romantic Road – a sign is available for photographic proof of a visit. However, the main reason to visit is the fine views that can be enjoyed fr ...
Founded: 1628 |
Location:
Füssen, Germany
All Saints Abbey Ruins
All Saints' Abbey (Kloster Allerheiligen) was a Premonstratensian monastery founded around 1192 when a wooden chapel was built, which was gradually extended to be a monastery. In 1196 the foundation charter was issued by Duchess Uta of Schauenburg. In 1200 Philip of Swabia recognised the foundation, and in 1204 Pope Innocent III confirmed it. The first abbot was Gerung. In 1248 canons from All Saints were sent to Lorsch ...
Founded: 1192 |
Location:
Oppenau, Germany
Banz Abbey
Banz Abbey, now known as Schloss Banz, is a former Benedictine monastery. It was founded in about 1070 by Countess Alberada of Schweinfurt and her husband, Count Hermann of Habsberg-Kastl, and until the secularisation of 1803 was the oldest monastery on the upper Main. In the late Middle Ages and until 1575 only members of the nobility were accepted as monks. After the Thirty Years" War the abbey had to be re-built. ...
Founded: c. 1070 |
Location:
Bad Staffelstein, Germany
Michaelsberg Abbey
Michaelsberg Abbey is situated on the Michaelsberg ('St. Michael's Mount'), about 40 metres above the town of Siegburg. The hill was first inhabited about 800 by the Counts of Auelgau, who built a castle there. In 1064 the Archbishop of Cologne, Anno II of Cologne, founded a monastery there, dedicated to the Archangel Michael, from whom both the mountain and the abbey henceforward took their names. He appointed the ...
Founded: 1064 |
Location:
Siegburg, Germany
Irsee Abbey
The Imperial Abbey of Irsee is a former Benedictine abbey, now a conference and training centre for Bavarian Swabia. According to tradition, the monastery, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was founded in 1182 by Margrave Heinrich von Ursin-Ronsberg, to house a community that had grown up around a local hermit. The monastery was first established at the long-abandoned Burg Ursin, the margrave"s ancestral castle, where S ...
Founded: 1182 |
Location:
Irsee, Germany
Eibingen Abbey
Eibingen Abbey (in German Abtei St. Hildegard) is Benedictine nunnery, originally founded in 1165 by Hildegard von Bingen. It was dissolved at the beginning of the 19th century during the secularization of this part of Germany. The present community was established by Charles, 6th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg in 1904 and re-settled from St. Gabriel's Abbey, Bertholdstein. The nunnery belongs to the Beuronese C ...
Founded: 1900-1904 |
Location:
Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany
Limburg Abbey Ruins
In the 9th century, the Salian Dukes from Worms built a fortress on the Linthberg as their family seat. In the early 11th century, the fortress was converted into a Limburg monastery with a basilica. It existed until the mid-16th century, today impressive ruins remains.
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Bad Dürkheim, Germany
Backnang Abbey Church
The Abbey of Saint Pancras of Backnang was founded before 1116 by Herman I, Margrave of Baden, and his wife, Countess Judith of Backnang-Sulichgau. Pope Paschal I confirmed the foundation in 1116. As early as 1123, though, the monastery had to be revived by their son, Margrave Herman II, with the help of canons from Marbach Abbey in Alsace. Between 1123 and 1243 the abbey was the burial place of the Zähringen Margra ...
Founded: c. 1100 |
Location:
Backnang, Germany
Seeon Abbey
Seeon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 994 by Pfalzgraf Aribo I of Bavaria and settled by Benedictine monks from St. Emmeram"s Abbey, Regensburg. The monastery is on an island in the lake Seeoner See. The abbey soon developed a significant scriptorium, producing manuscripts not only for the abbey"s own use but also for other monasteries and churches. Their most important client was Emperor Henry II, ...
Founded: 994 AD |
Location:
Seeon-Seebruck, Germany
Petershausen Abbey
Petershausen Abbey was founded as an exempt abbey named after Saint Peter in 983 by Bishop Gebhard of Constance, located on the northern shore of the Rhine river opposite to the episcopal residence at Constance with its cathedral. Gebhard dedicated the monastery church to Pope Gregory the Great and settled the abbey with monks descending from Einsiedeln. Under Bishop Gebhard III of Zähringen and Abbot Theodoric (108 ...
Founded: 983 AD |
Location:
Konstanz, Germany
Wiblingen Abbey
Wiblingen Abbey was a former Benedictine abbey which was later used as barracks. Today its buildings house several departments of the medical faculty of the University of Ulm and is part of the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. Wiblingen Abbey was founded in 1093 by the counts Hartmann and Otto von Kirchberg. The counts offered monks of St. Blaise"s Abbey in the Black Forest lands near the river Iller, which the monks us ...
Founded: 1093 |
Location:
Ulm, Germany
Herrenalb Abbey
Herrenalb Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery founded probably in 1147 or 1148 by Count Berthold of Eberstein. The new monastery was settled by monks from Neubourg Abbey in Alsace. The abbey owned scattered estates and communities in the Alb valley in the northern Black Forest. The abbey was however never able to concentrate its lands so as to maximise their economic potential, and never became particularly wealthy. T ...
Founded: c. 1147 |
Location:
Bad Herrenalb, Germany
Steingaden Abbey
Dedicated to John the Baptist, the Steingaden abbey was founded in 1147 as a Premonstratensian house by Welf VI, third son of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, and brother of Duke Henry the Proud. The first monks and their abbot came from the Premonstratensian Rot an der Rot Abbey. The Romanesque abbey church was dedicated in 1176. Between 1470 and 1491 the abbey buildings were refurbished under Abbot Caspar Suiter in the ...
Founded: 1147/1663 |
Location:
Steingaden, Germany
Schäftlarn Abbey
Schäftlarn Abbey was founded in 762 by Waltrich, a Benedictine monk of noble family, on his own land. During the next two centuries the monastery grew as a result of various gifts and endowments (among them the estates of Schwabing and Hesselohe). From 1140 to its dissolution during the secularisation of Bavaria in 1803, Schäftlarn belonged to the Premonstratensian Order. In 1866 King Ludwig I of Bavaria restored posse ...
Founded: 762 AD |
Location:
Schäftlarn, Germany
Heisterbach Abbey Ruins
Heisterbach Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in the Siebengebirge near Oberdollendorf. The tradition of its origin is that a knight named Walther lived as a hermit on the Stromberg, also known as the Petersberg, one of the mountains forming the Siebengebirge. When numerous disciples began to settle near his cell, he built a monastery in 1134, where the community lived according to the Rule of St. Augustine. After t ...
Founded: 1189 |
Location:
Oberdollendorf, Germany
Heilsbronn Abbey Church
Heilsbronn Abbey was a Cistercian monastery at Heilsbronn founded in 1132–33 by Saint Otto of Bamberg. It was settled by monks from Ebrach Abbey, under the first abbot Rapotho. It was one of the wealthiest monasteries of Germany, with possessions around Franconia as far as Regensburg and in Württemberg. These rich endowments were mostly made by the dukes of Abenberg and their heirs, the Hohenzollern Burgraves of Nuremb ...
Founded: 1132 |
Location:
Heilsbronn, Germany
St. Matthias' Abbey
St. Matthias" Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Trier. The abbey church, a Romanesque basilica, is a renowned place of pilgrimage because of the tomb of Saint Matthias the Apostle, after whom the abbey is named, located here since the 12th century, and the only burial of an apostle in Germany and north of the Alps. The abbey was originally named after Saint Eucharius, first Bishop of Trier, whose tomb is in the cry ...
Founded: 977 AD |
Location:
Trier, Germany
Prenzlau Abbey
The Dominican monastery at Prenzlau was founded in 1275, joining an existing Franciscan monastery and the Nunnery of Mary Magdalen. The monastery was thus a further spiritual centre serving Prenzlau"s citizens, playing an important role in the growth of the town and ensuring its significance in the medieval Mark of Brandenburg. The Dominican monastery"s compound comprises the monastic church and the originally ...
Founded: 1275 |
Location:
Prenzlau, Germany
Werden Abbey
Near Essen Saint Ludger founded a monastery in 799 and became its first abbot. The little church which Saint Ludger built here in honor of Saint Stephen was completed in 804 and dedicated by Saint Ludger himself, who had meanwhile become Bishop of Münster. Upon the death of Ludger on 26 March 809, the abbacy of Werden passed by inheritance first to his younger brother Hildigrim I (809–827), then successively to ...
Founded: 799 AD |
Location:
Essen, Germany