Religious sites in Germany
Zarrentin Abbey
The Cistercian Zarrentin Abbey was founded around 1250 and securalized in 1552 due the Reformation. Parts of the monastery have survived and the the abbey church is today a parish church.
Founded: 1250 |
Location:
Zarrentin, Germany
St. James' Church
St. James" Church is first mentioned in archival records dating to 1285, and was later rebuilt as a Gothic-style church. A Brick Gothic church, the building is comprised from granite blocks at its base, and sandstone quarry derived bricks higher up. St. Jacob"s is a three-aisled hall church, with stain glass windows dating to the 14th and 15th century preserved in the church"s ambulatory. The choir banks we ...
Founded: 1285 |
Location:
Stendal, Germany
Plankstetten Abbey
Plankstetten Abbey was founded in 1129 as a private monastery of the bishops of Eichstätt by Count Ernst of Hirschberg and his brother Gebhard of Hirschberg, Bishop of Eichstätt. The Romanesque crypt remains from the time of the foundation. After the decline in monastic standards in the 15th century, the abbey was reformed by Abbot Ulrich IV Dürner (1461–94), who also founded the brewery. The abbey w ...
Founded: 1129 |
Location:
Plankstetten, Germany
St. George's Abbey
St. George"s Abbey in Isny is a former Benedictine abbey founded in 1096 by the Counts of Altshausen-Veringen. In 1106 the foundation was confirmed by Pope Paschal II. Towards the end of the 12th century a Benedictine nunnery was also established in Isny but this was moved in about 1189 to Rohrdorf. St. George"s Abbey was responsible for the foundation of the town of Isny, which was developed as a market at the ...
Founded: 1096 |
Location:
Isny im Allgäu, Germany
Prüll Charterhouse
Prüll Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery. The monastery, dedicated to Saint Vitus, was established as Prüll Abbey, a Benedictine foundation, in 997 by Gebhard I, Bishop of Regensburg, and his brother Rapoto. In about 1100 the Ottonian church building was replaced by a Romanesque hall church, the first of the sort in Bavaria. In 1484 Prüll became a Carthusian monastery, with the support of Albert ...
Founded: 997 AD |
Location:
Regensburg, Germany
Medingen Abbey
Medingen Abbey is a former Cistercian nunnery. A founding legend ascribes the convent"s origins to a lay brother called Johannes; the convent"s history from its founding to the election of abbess Margaretha Puffen was formerly depicted in a cycle of 15 painted wooden boards, that were destroyed in the fire of 1781. The legend has it that Johannes claimed divine guidance in his quest to build the new convent. The ...
Founded: 1241 |
Location:
Medingen, Germany
Vilmnitz Church
The Imposing Vilmnitz brick church was built in the mid-13th century with double square choir and rib-vaulting. Shortly afterwards, the sacristy to the north was built. Square-hewn fieldstones in the base of the wall point to the early date of building for the choir and the sacristy. Originally there was a narrower nave, completed at about the mid-14th century at the latest. In the 15th century it was demolished and repla ...
Founded: c. 1250 |
Location:
Vilmnitz, Germany
St. Nicholas' Church
The construction of the church for Saint Nicholas, the patron of sailors, fishermen and merchants, commenced around 1280, predating the first written sources that mention Anklam, which generally date to around 1300. The church's steeple was clearly visible from far away, and was once used for navigation of the lagoon near the town. During the Middle Ages, the church was regarded as a symbol of Anklam and as a monument to ...
Founded: c. 1280 |
Location:
Anklam, Germany
Reichenbach Priory
Reichenbach Priory was a house of the Benedictine Order located at Klosterreichenbach. The monastery was founded, against the background of the Investiture Controversy and the Hirsau Reforms, as a priory of Hirsau Abbey, from where it was settled, in 1082; in 1085 the church was dedicated to Saint Gregory the Great by Bishop Gebhard of Konstanz. The Vögte (lords protectors) of the monastery were the Counts of Eberst ...
Founded: 1082 |
Location:
Klosterreichenbach, Germany
Oberschönenfeld Abbey
Oberschönenfeld Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery in Gessertshausen. As early as around 1186 there were Beguines, or a similar community of women, on this site. In about 1211 they formed a more structured community which by 1248, when the church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, had been formally constituted as a Cistercian nunnery, accounted a daughter house of Kaisheim Abbey; its founders were the local nobleman Volkmar vo ...
Founded: 1211-1248 |
Location:
Gessertshausen, Germany
St. John's Church
St. John"s Church in Petersdorf dates from the 13th century. Its 64-metre-high steeple was used as a daymark by ships on the Fehmarn Belt and Sound, as it is visible for up to 20 miles at sea. The church and adjacent cemetery are surrounded by 64 lime trees. The altar triptych dating from the 14th century is considered a masterpiece of Gothic carving skill. The oldest artefact is the font of Gotland limestone. The ch ...
Founded: 13th century |
Location:
Petersdorf, Germany
Maria Engelport Monastery
Maria Engelport Monastery lies in the sleepy valley of the Flaumbach, a tributary valley of the Mosel. It was founded three times during its history. The original foundation took place in 1220. According to the legend appeared to knight Emelrikus of Monreal, he lived near Treis-Karden in Fankel, two angels with burning candles and jingling bells as he was out hunting. At this place he built a church and a convent. Cisterc ...
Founded: 1220/1903 |
Location:
Treis, Germany
Preetz Priory
Preetz Priory is a former German Benedictine monastery of nuns founded in 1211 by Graf Albrecht of Orlamünde, nephew of King Valdemar II of Denmark. He founded it following a mystical experience which he later recounted happened while he was stalking a deer. After following it into a glen, the deer stood still and he suddenly saw a gleaming cross appear between its antlers. He felt that the site was a holy place whic ...
Founded: 1211 |
Location:
Preetz, Germany
Weissenau Abbey
Weissenau Abbey was an Imperial abbey (Reichsabtei) of the Holy Roman Empire. The abbey, a Premonstratensian monastery, was an Imperial Estate and therefore its abbot had seat and voice in the Reichstag as a prelate of the Swabian Bench. The abbey existed from 1145 until the secularisation of 1802-1803. The monastery was founded in 1145 by Gebizo of Ravensburg, a ministerialis of the Welfs, and his sister Luitgarde. Its ...
Founded: 1145 |
Location:
Ravensburg, Germany
Amandus Church
The Protestant Amandus Church is a late Gothic fortified former village church. The first mention of a church at this place dates from 844. The foundation walls of the massive choir tower date from the late Romanesque or early Gothic period. The chancel, the choir tower with its embrasures and the oldest part of the nave were probably not built until after 1450, despite the early Gothic impression created by the chancel a ...
Founded: 12th century |
Location:
Freiberg am Neckar, Germany
St. Severin Church
St. Severin is a Lutheran parish church named after the 4th-century bishop Severin of Cologne. Built in the Romanesque style and first documented in 1240, the church stands back from the town at a higher elevation. The tower was built around 1450 and served as a navigation mark for seafarers as well as a prison. The site upon which the church now stands initially housed a sanctuary to Odin and was used for the worship of ...
Founded: 1216-1240 |
Location:
Keitum, Germany
Söflingen Abbey
Söflingen Abbey was a nunnery of the Order of Poor Ladies, also known as the Poor Clares. Being the oldest nunnery of this order in Germany, it was also its most important and most affluent. Söflingen Abbey originated from a pre-Franciscan congregation of women that had acquired the rights over three farmsteads close to the river Danube near Ulm. It was for the first time mentioned in 1237. Soon the original location be ...
Founded: 1253 |
Location:
Ulm, Germany
Isen Abbey Church
Isen Abbey was a Benedictine abbey, later a collegiate foundation. Dedicated to Saint Zeno of Verona, the abbey was founded by members of the Fagana family, an indigenous Bavarian noble clan, and by Bishop Joseph of Freising (also known as Joseph of Verona) in the 8th century, about 752. It was one of the oldest monasteries on ancient Bavarian soil. Until the beginning of the 12th century it was Benedictine, but afterward ...
Founded: 752 AD |
Location:
Isen, Germany
St. Peter's Church
St. Peter"s is a Romanesque church in Syburg, now a suburb of Dortmund. Standing on a rocky outcrop above the confluence of the Ruhr and the Lenne, the sandstone church is one of the most noticeable landmarks in the area. The church is surrounded by a graveyard, which contains the oldest gravestones in Westphalia; three stones date back to between 750 and 850, one of which is in the church. In his desire fo ...
Founded: c. 1100 |
Location:
Dortmund, Germany
St. Andrea's Church
The village Rappin was first mentioned in 1305 and the construction of the brick church started around 1300. Subsequently, the rib-vaulted nave was added, as were a vestibule and sacristy. The wooden bell tower was created only in 1635. A limestone font, the oldest piece in the church, dates back to the second half of the 13th century, and is decorated with motifs of round arches and faces. Escutcheons and memorial slabs ...
Founded: 1305 |
Location:
Rappin, Germany