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Churches & monasteries
Alpirsbach
Alpirsbach Abbey (Kloster Alpirsbach) is a former Benedictine monastery in the Black Forest, founded in 1095 and famous for its plain Romanesque church built of red sandstone. A Gothic cloister, a museum and a quiet village setting make it…
Churches & monasteries
Andechs
Andechs Abbey (Kloster Andechs) crowns the "Holy Mountain" above the Ammersee lake, about 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Munich, and is one of the most rewarding day trips from the city. Here a dazzling Rococo pilgrimage church, a working B…
Churches & monasteries
Bad Staffelstein
Banz Abbey (Kloster Banz) crowns a hill above the Main valley near Bad Staffelstein in Upper Franconia. Facing the Basilica of Vierzehnheiligen across the valley, the former Benedictine monastery forms the heart of the scenic area known as…
Churches & monasteries
Tübingen
Bebenhausen Abbey (Kloster Bebenhausen), just north of Tübingen, is one of the best-preserved medieval monasteries in Germany. The former Cistercian house sits in a forest clearing inside the Schönbuch Nature Park, with a late Gothic clois…
Churches & monasteries
Benediktbeuern
Benediktbeuern Abbey lies in the Alpine foothills not far from Lake Kochel, the twin towers of its basilica set against the mountains. It is one of the oldest monastic foundations in Bavaria, with a history known far beyond the region: the…
Churches & monasteries
Chorin
Chorin Abbey, about an hour northeast of Berlin, is one of the finest examples of North German brick Gothic architecture. The roofless red-brick ruins of this former Cistercian monastery rise beside a quiet lake in the Schorfheide-Chorin B…
Churches & monasteries
Eltville am Rhein
Eberbach Abbey (Kloster Eberbach), near Eltville am Rhein in Hesse's Rheingau wine region, is one of the best-preserved medieval monasteries in Europe. Cistercian monks founded it in 1136, built a severe Romanesque church and vast Gothic h…
Churches & monasteries
Ettal
Ettal Abbey (Kloster Ettal) is a Benedictine monastery in the Bavarian Alps, about 90 minutes south of Munich, and one of the most impressive baroque buildings in Upper Bavaria. Its huge green dome rises from a narrow valley between Oberau…
Churches & monasteries
Schwäbisch Hall
From below, Großcomburg looks like a castle: a ring wall, defensive towers and, above them, three pointed Romanesque towers on a spur of rock around which the river Kocher makes a loop. In fact it was a monastery and collegiate foundation…
Churches & monasteries
Bernkastel-Kues
Deep in the forest, in the secluded Salm valley between Wittlich and the Volcanic Eifel, a tall Baroque church front suddenly appears among the trees. Himmerod Abbey was founded in 1134 by Bernard of Clairvaux, the most famous Cistercian o…
Churches & monasteries
Calw
Among the half-timbered houses of the Nagold valley, a single Romanesque tower rises above red sandstone walls, and behind it empty traceried arches open to the sky. That is all that stands of the Abbey of St Peter and Paul in Hirsau, yet…
Churches & monasteries
Kamp-Lintfort
Kamp Abbey (Kloster Kamp) in Kamp-Lintfort, in Germany's Lower Rhine region, was founded in 1123 as the first Cistercian monastery in the German-speaking world. Today it is best known for its spectacular Baroque terraced garden, which step…
Churches & monasteries
Dormagen
Knechtsteden Abbey near Dormagen, between Cologne and Düsseldorf, is a former Premonstratensian monastery founded in the 12th century and one of the finest Romanesque complexes in the Lower Rhine region. Its basilica, with tall towers and…
Churches & monasteries
Kloster Lehnin
Lehnin Abbey (Kloster Lehnin) in Brandenburg is one of the most important brick monasteries in the Mark Brandenburg region, founded in 1180. The red brick church of St. Marien, the gate chapel and the old monastery buildings sit in a quiet…
Churches & monasteries
Rehburg-Loccum
Loccum Abbey (Kloster Loccum) in Rehburg-Loccum, near Lake Steinhude west of Hanover, is one of the best-preserved Cistercian monasteries north of the Alps. Behind its old enclosure wall you will find a serene late-Romanesque church, a pea…
Churches & monasteries
Lorsch
Lorsch Abbey (Kloster Lorsch) in southern Hesse is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important relics of the Carolingian era in Germany. The once-powerful imperial abbey survives mainly through its famous Königshalle, a gate…
Churches & monasteries
Metten
Metten Abbey lies between the foothills of the Bavarian Forest and the Danube valley near Deggendorf and is still a living Benedictine community. It is best known for its Baroque library: powerful atlas figures support the vaults, crowned…
Churches & monasteries
Bamberg
For fourteen years the church on the Michelsberg was hidden behind scaffolding; now it is open again. St Michael's was rededicated with a service on 25 April 2026. The former Benedictine abbey sits on one of Bamberg's seven hills, and its…
Churches & monasteries
Neuzelle
Neuzelle Abbey in eastern Brandenburg is one of the few fully preserved monastery complexes in Europe, often called the "Baroque miracle on the Oder." Behind the bright yellow facade of the abbey church lies an exuberant interior of stucco…
Churches & monasteries
Ottobeuren
Ottobeuren Abbey in the Bavarian Allgäu is one of the finest Baroque monasteries in Germany, often called the "Swabian Escorial." The Benedictine community has lived here since 764, and its basilica, with three domes, frescoes and white-an…
Churches & monasteries
Dachau
Where Benedictine monks pray today once stood the ancestral castle of one of Europe's most powerful families: the Counts of Scheyern later called themselves the Wittelsbachs and ruled Bavaria until 1918. When they moved to their new castle…
Churches & monasteries
Ostritz
St. Marienthal Abbey (Kloster St. Marienthal) in Ostritz is described as the oldest continuously existing Cistercian nunnery in Germany. It stands on the Lusatian Neisse river right on the Polish border in Upper Lusatia, east of Dresden. T…
Churches & monasteries
Walkenried
Walkenried Abbey (Kloster Walkenried), on the southern edge of the Harz mountains in Lower Saxony, is one of Germany's most atmospheric Cistercian monasteries and, since 2010, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The soaring ruins of its…
Churches & monasteries
Kelheim
Weltenburg Abbey near Kelheim sits on a bend of the Danube River, right at the entrance to the Danube Gorge, where the river squeezes between towering limestone cliffs. This Benedictine monastery is famous for three things: a breathtaking…