Braunau in Rohr Abbey is a monastery of the Augustinian Canons dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was founded in 1133 by Adalbert of Rohr. It was dissolved in the secularization of 1803 when the German princes substituted church lands for property they had lost through Napoleon. In the east wing the parish priest's offices and a school were accommodated, and in a part of the west wing, an inn. The remaining buildings were demolished.
The abbey church, dedicated, like the abbey, to the Assumption, contains a high altar, which represents the Assumption of the Virgin in fully three-dimensional sculpture a Theatrum sacrum. It was created by Egid Quirin Asam in 1722 and 1723.
After World War II the exiled German Benedictine monks from Braunau Abbey (Braunau is now Broumov in the Czech Republic) were lodged here in part of the east wing. They gradually re-established their community, acquiring little by little the remaining parts of the entire monastery complex. The monks have re-established a secondary school here.
The abbey has been part of the Bavarian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation since 1984.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.