Steingaden Abbey
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Steingaden Abbey (Kloster Steingaden) was a Premonstratensian monastery in Steingaden in Bavaria, Germany.
[edit] History
Dedicated to John the Baptist, the abbey was founded in 1147 as a Premonstratensian house by Duke Welf II of Bavaria, brother of Duke Henry the Black. It was dissolved in 1803 during the secularisation of Bavaria. The monastic buildings were bought at auction by the Meyer brothers from Aarau, who demolished them in 1819, except for the wings, which included the Romanesque cloisters.
The abbey church, the Welfenmünster, is now the parish church of Steingaden. It was built in the Romanesque style in 1176; the interior bears the appearance of the Rococo refurbishment carried out between 1740 and 1751.
The nearby Wies church is also closely connected to Steingaden Abbey. It was built under Abbot Marinus Mayer in 1745 and soon became one of the most important pilgrimage churches in Bavaria, which it remains today.
The abbey's inaccessible location and prestigious building projects brought it however into financial difficulties which in the end remained insuperable until its dissolution.
[edit] External links
- (German) Klöster in Bayern
