Religious sites in Germany

Hardehausen Abbey

In 1009 Herswithehusen (Hardehausen) became the property of Meinwerk, bishop of Paderborn. The abbey was founded in 1140 by bishop Bernhard I of Paderborn as a daughter house of Kamp Abbey on the Lower Rhine. Construction was completed with the dedication of the church in 1165. During the Thirty Years" War the abbey was looted and destroyed. During its reconstruction in the years 1680 to 1750 it received ...

Founded: 1140 | Location: Warburg, Germany

St. Michael’s Church

St. Michael’s Church in Sagard is a single-nave, four-bay Romanesque church built in the early 13th century. Of the original late-Romanesque structure, the nave walls and the western part of the triumphal arch have survived to their full height. The structure of the Romanesque upper wall has been preserved almost completely inside and out. In about 1400 the choir was rebuilt in Gothic style (using demolition materia ...

Founded: 13th century | Location: Sagard, Germany

St. Andreas Church

St. Andreas brick Gothic church in Lancken Granitz dates back to the 15th century. Its oldest piece is a wooden cross affixed to a triumphal arch. The eight-sided pulpit with its star-shaped ceiling was built in 1598. The baptismal angel, created during the Baroque era, was recently restored. The altar screen (early 19th century) contains a copy of the Madonna painting by Correggio. The organ, which was manufactured in Sz ...

Founded: 15th century | Location: Lancken-Granitz, Germany

Aura Abbey

Aura Abbey was a house of the Benedictine Order located at Aura an der Saale. Built on the site of an earlier castle, and dedicated to Saints Laurence and Gregory, it was founded by Bishop Otto of Bamberg between about 1108 and 1113; the foundation charter is dated 1122. The new foundation was settled by monks from Hirsau Abbey. The first abbot was Ekkehard of Aura, a monk from Bamberg, famous as the continuer of the Welt ...

Founded: 1108-1122 | Location: Aura an der Saale, Germany

Sonnefeld Monastery

Sonnefeld Monastery, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, was founded in 1260 by Henry II von Sonneberg and his wife Kunigunde. The Monastery was at the beginning in Ebersdorf bei Coburg but, after a great fire in 1267, it was moved to Hofstädten. But the Monastery and its surrounding settlement and district adopted Sonnefeld as their names and kept it until 1889, when Sonnefeld and Hofstädten merged to become Sonnefel ...

Founded: 1260 | Location: Sonnefeld, Germany

Ahrensbök Charterhouse

Ahrensbök Charterhouse was a former Carthusian monastery or charterhouse established in 1397. The estates with which it was endowed reached as far as Scharbeutz on the Bay of Lübeck. During the Reformation the monastery was secularised, and with its estates fell into the hands of John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, in 1584, who had the buildings demolished. The building materials were used between ...

Founded: 1397 | Location: Ahrensbök, Germany

Rühn Abbey

Rühn Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery founded by Brunward, bishop of Schwerin in 1232. Already on May 29, 1292 the monastery was burned down completely. After reconstruction 30-40 nuns lived, prayed and worked there. After the Reformation Duke Ulrich gave the monastery to his wife Elisabeth. She founded in Rühn the first girls" school in Mecklenburg. Numerous renovations and extensions were made then ...

Founded: 1232 | Location: Rühn, Germany

Freiburg Charterhouse

Freiburg Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery founded in 1345 or 1346 by Johannes Schnewlin, knight, Bürgermeister of Freiburg. It was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, in honour of the Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble. In the early 16th century, the premises were extended by the addition of the refectory and the church, which was constructed in the Late Gothic style with ribbed vaulting and flying buttres ...

Founded: 1345 | Location: Freiburg, Germany

Heggbach Abbey

Heggbach Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery founded in 1231 Beguines from nearby Maselheim, close to a church whose dedication to Saint Pancras suggests may have been a proprietary church of the Counts of Berg. This church was supervised by Salem Abbey. The following year, the small convent at Heggbach was also put under the supervision of Salem Abbey. Between 1233 and 1244 Hekebach was incorporated into the Cistercian order ...

Founded: 1231 | Location: Maselheim, Germany

Kellenried Abbey

Kellenried Abbey is a Benedictine monastery of women founded by the Beuronese Congregation in 1924. The first nuns came from St. Gabriel's Abbey, Bertholdstein. The abbey was named after St. Erentraud of Salzburg, first Abbess of Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg. The abbey church was built in 1923–24 in the Baroque Revival style by Adolf J. Lorenz. In 1926 the monastery was raised to the status of an abbey. In 1940 the nuns ...

Founded: 1924 | Location: Kellenried, Germany

Poseritz Church

Poseritz Brick church is built on foundations of large fieldstones. There are individual fieldstone courses in the tower. Work on the nave began between 1302 and 1325. The structure was designed as a three aisle hall structure, and this plan was followed in the first phase of construction, visible in the applied columns to the left and right of the tower entrance. Those to the east were removed in widening the triumphal a ...

Founded: 1302-1325 | Location: Poseritz, Germany

St. Margaret's Church

St. Margaret"s Church in Patzig was erected in 1381, but nothing is left of that original structure. The current church is a single-nave church, to which a wide, rib-vaulted parish hall was added later on. The granite font (c.1250) is probably a remnant of the original structure and possibly the oldest baptismal font in Rügen. The memorial slab for Peter von Patzig (†1339) has a carved drawing that shows ...

Founded: c. 1466 | Location: Patzig, Germany

St. Peter's Church

Peterskirche was first mentioned in 1173. The current late-Gothic religious building was constructed in 1457 and contains a notable series of paintings from the 15th century. The paintings are Fresco-secco style.

Founded: 12th century | Location: Blansingen, Germany

Kirchschletten Monastery

First mentioned in 1143, the Kirchschletten Monastery started as a feudal farm and belonged to the aristocracy until 1856. It became part of the monastery Niederalteich in 1917. There is an organic farm, a guest house and a candle manufacture on the grounds of the monastery.

Founded: 12th century | Location: Kirchschletten, Germany

Edelstetten Abbey

Edelstetten monastery, dedicated to Saints John the Baptist and St. Paul was founded in 1126. According to the tradition the founder and first abbess was Mechthild an Augustinian choir woman. Mechthild of Dießen arrived in 1153 and was appointed abbess by the Bishop of Edelstetten to reform the pin. However, after six years, she returned unsuccessful back there. In 1460, the monastery was incorporated into the Margr ...

Founded: 1126 | Location: Edelstetten, Germany

Frauenzell Abbey

Frauenzell Abbey was a house of the Benedictine Order located at Brennberg. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the monastery was founded in 1321 by Reinmar of Brennberg. At first a cell or priory of Oberalteich Abbey, it was granted the status of an abbey in its own right in 1424. It was dissolved in 1803 in the secularisation of the period. Some of the buildings were used for the accommodation of the school and the minister&q ...

Founded: 1321 | Location: Brennberg, Germany

Langheim Abbey

Langheim Abbey was a well-known Cistercian monastery in Klosterlangheim, part of the town of Lichtenfels. Three brothers from the city of Bamberg made a gift of the estate of Langheim to Saint Otto I, bishop of Bamberg, who in 1132 offered it Adam of Ebrach, abbot of the Cistercian Ebrach Abbey, on condition that it should be used for the establishment of a new monastery of that order. The first stone was laid on 1 August ...

Founded: 1132-1142 | Location: Lichtenfels, Germany

Michelfeld Abbey

Michelfeld Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Auerbach in der Oberpfalz. The monastery, dedicated to Saint Michael and Saint John the Evangelist, was founded in 1119 by Bishop Otto I of Bamberg. It was dissolved in the Reformation, in 1556. Re-opened temporarily in 1661 and permanently in 1684, it was put under the administration of the Electors of Bavaria on 13 March 1802 and finally dissolved in 1803 in the secularisa ...

Founded: 1119 | Location: Auerbach in der Oberpfalz, Germany

Reichenbach Abbey

Reichenbach Abbey, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin,was founded in 1118 by Markgraf Diepold III of Vohburg and his mother Luitgard. During the Reformation it was looted, and secularised from 1553 to 1669, when it was re-established. It was dissolved again in 1803 during the secularisation of Bavaria. The abbey's property was confiscated by the state and eventually auctioned off in 1820. After a couple of ...

Founded: 1118 | Location: Reichenbach, Germany

Wechterswinkel Abbey

Wechterswinkel Abbey, dedicated to the Holy Trinity and Saint Margaret, was founded in 1134 or 1135 by Embricho of House of Leiningen, bishop of Würzburg, and King Conrad III of Germany. It was so severely damaged in the wars of the 16th century that it was unable to continue, and was dissolved in 1592 by Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, the then bishop of Würzburg. The assets realised were invested to endow pari ...

Founded: 1134 | Location: Wechterswinkel, Germany