Schönrain Priory Ruins

Schönrain Priory was a house of the Benedictine Order located near Lohr in the Spessart. There is a legend that it was originally founded in the Carolingian period, in about 750, by Saint Lioba, and some have argued that a few traces of architecture from that period survive. However, firm information on this place is available only from the 11th century, when the monastery, with some property to endow it, was given by Counts Ludwig and Beringer of Sangerhausen to Hirsau Abbey, against the background of the Investiture Controversy and the Hirsau Reforms. It was duly re-founded as a priory of Hirsau.

The Vögte (or lay stewards) were the Counts of Rieneck, kin of the founders, who persistently over the next centuries tried to acquire the property for themselves. Eventually, after severe damages sustained during the German Peasants' War, the then Abbot of Hirsau dissolved the monastery at Schönrain and sold the premises to the Rieneck family, who re-built it as a residence.

The site, after a number of descents, passed to the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg, who used it as accommodation for their forestry officials. It was secularised in 1802 and continued in use by the forestry officials of the Kingdom of Bavaria. When their headquarters was moved elsewhere, the buildings at Schönrain were stripped for building materials, and the site has been in ruins since that time.

Since 1973 the site and the ruins have been under the protection of a local environmental and historical preservation group, the Lohrer Heimatfreunde.

Address

MSP11, Lohr am Main, Germany

Details

Founded: 8th century AD
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Germany
Historical period: Part of The Frankish Empire (Germany)