Religious sites in 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 o ...
Founded: 1132 |
Location:
Heilsbronn, Germany
St. Maria zur Höhe Church
St. Maria zur Höhe Church was founded around 1180 and remodelled later. It has an beautiful interior containing Byzantine influenced frescoes (the influence was brought to Westphalia by crusaders) and a strange wooden cross from 1200.
Founded: c.1180 |
Location:
Soest, 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
Rottenburg Cathedral
St. Martin"s Cathedral has been the cathedral of Rottenburg since 1821. Its tower, dating from 1486, is its most prominent feature. It was reconstructed in 1644-1655 after a fire in Baroque style.
Founded: 1486 |
Location:
Rottenburg am Neckar, 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
Rottenbuch Abbey Church
Rottenbuch Abbey was founded as an Augustinian monastery in 1073 on land granted by Duke Welf I of Bavaria. The Abbey church was constructed between 1085 and 1125 in the Romanesque style. The design of a crossing transept and free-standing tower is unusual for a Bavarian church. Rottenbuch was a center of papal loyalty during the Investiture Controversy. Under the patronage of Emperor Louis the Bavarian in the 14th centur ...
Founded: 1073 |
Location:
Rottenbuch, Germany
Schussenried Abbey
Schussenried Abbey was a Premonstratensian monastery founded by the local landowners, Berengar and Konrad of Schussenried in 1183. It was settled from the Premonstratensian Rot an der Rot Abbey. Pope Innocent III granted it his protection and guaranteed its immunity by a privilege of 13 February 1211. It acquired substantial endowments and built up a considerable territory, and was declared an imperial abbey (i.e., territ ...
Founded: 1183 |
Location:
Bad Schussenried, Germany
Amorbach Abbey
Amorbach Abbey was one of four Carolingian foundations intended to establish Christianity in the region of the Odenwald. It is said to take its name from Amor, a disciple of Saint Pirmin, regarded as the founder. The abbey was consecrated in 734. By 800 it had become a Reichsabtei, the abbot being directly answerable to Charlemagne. Pepin united it to the Bishopric of Würzburg, although control of it was much dispute ...
Founded: 734 AD |
Location:
Amorbach, Germany
Güstrow Cathedral
Güstrow Cathedral is a Brick Gothic Lutheran cathedral initially completed in 1335. It is the oldest extant building in Barlachstadt Güstrow. The church was originally dedicated by the Bishop of Kammin. The cathedral"s charter was removed in 1552, and the cathedral fell into disuse and was used to house vehicles for 12 years. In 1568 it began to be used as an evangelical palace chapel and resting place for ...
Founded: 1335 |
Location:
Güstrow, Germany
St. Mary's Church
St. Mary"s, the chief parish church in Prenzlau, is a High Brick Gothic building with a three-aisled hall and three polythagonal chapels on the church"s eastern site. St. Mary"s dual towers dwarf the town; the legendary gables featuring elaborate tracery are worthy of a cathedral. Excavations have shown that this replaced an earlier church on the site (1235-1250), a vaulted three aisled hall church with a t ...
Founded: 1235-1250 |
Location:
Prenzlau, Germany
St. Mary's Church
St. Mary’s Church in Barth is a brick church built around 1300 and it was mentioned for the first time in 1325. The church was created in 3 building phases, where the choir to the east is its oldest part and built in the early Gothic style. The organ, which was created by the Berlin organ builder Buchholz and his son, promises a unique sound and is one of the particularly valuable organ monuments in Germany. Its sp ...
Founded: c. 1300 |
Location:
Barth, Germany
St. Gangolf's Church
St. Gangolf is the oldest of Bamberg"s churches and comprises several styles. The parish church, a former convent of canons, was built in the 12th century under bishop Otto the Holy in a romanesque style and converted into a gothic style around 1400. It later received baroque furnishings and today boasts a romanesque nave, a gothic choir, rococo altars and a modern altar, thus spanning many centuries.
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Bamberg, Germany
Cologne Charterhouse
Cologne Charterhouse (Kölner Kartause) was a Carthusian monastery established in 1334. The monastery developed into the largest charterhouse in Germany until it was forcibly dissolved in 1794 by the invading French Revolutionary troops. The building complex was then neglected until World War II, when it was mostly destroyed. The present building complex is very largely a post-war reconstruction. Since 1928 the Cart ...
Founded: 1334 |
Location:
Cologne, Germany
St. Peter's Church
The first churches on site of St. Peter's Church were built during the Middle Ages (1128-1369), with famous church leader Bishop Otto von Bamberg resident in 1128, with services and baptisms being held in Wolgast. von Bamberg ordered the razing of the Pagan temple on the site and the construction of the first church, which is thought to have been comprised of wooden polls. With the conferral of a town charter by nearby po ...
Founded: 14th century |
Location:
Wolgast, Germany
Kastl Abbey
Kastl Abbey, dedicated to Saint Peter, was founded in 1103 or shortly before by Count Berengar II of Sulzbach together with Frederick and Otto, Counts of Kastl-Habsberg. It was dissolved in 1563 in the course of the Reformation, but re-established as a Catholic monastery in 1625. From 1636 the building was used by the Jesuits, from 1773 by the Knights Hospitallers. Dissolved again in 1803, it was the seat of the Provinci ...
Founded: 1103 |
Location:
Kastl, Germany
St. Gallus and Ulrich Church
The Parish Church of St. Gallus and Ulrich was built in 1734-1738 by Johann Georg Fischer through the conversion of a Gothic church predecessor. It was extensively renovated between 1974 and 1980. The church contains a Madonna of 1623 (attributed to Hans Zürn the Elder), a baroque pulpit of divination Johann Wilhelm (1745) and numerous tombs of the 16th and 17th century. The church also has a valuable treasure of sil ...
Founded: 1734-1738 |
Location:
Kißlegg, Germany
Scheyern Abbey
Scheyern Abbey was established in 1119 as the final site of the community originally founded in around 1077 at Bayrischzell by Countess Haziga of Aragon, wife of Otto II, Count of Scheyern, the ancestors of the Wittelsbachs. The first monks were from Hirsau Abbey, of which the new monastery was a priory, founded as it was against the background of the Investiture Controversy and the Hirsau Reforms. The original site prove ...
Founded: 1119 |
Location:
Scheyern, Germany
Beuron Archabbey
Beuron Archabbey is a major house of the Benedictine Order. It was founded in 1863 by the brothers Maurus and Placidus Wolter, in buildings which until 1802 had housed an Augustinian monastery. Between 1875 and 1887 because of political conditions during the 'Kulturkampf' the monks had to leave the abbey, but used the opportunity to found new communities elsewhere, which afterwards joined together under the lead ...
Founded: 1863 |
Location:
Beuron, Germany
St. Catherine's Church
St. Catherine"s Church in Middelhagen, with boulder foundations, was built around 1455. The wooden tower was created only later – according to the strict rules of the Cistercian monks, many churches were built without towers. The Catherine"s altar from the Middle Ages (c.1480) is still preserved – it was probably installed here only after the Thirty Years" War, having been brought from Stralsund ...
Founded: c. 1455 |
Location:
Middelhagen, Germany