Andechs Abbey
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![]() Andechs Abbey | |
![]() ![]() Location within Germany | |
Monastery information | |
---|---|
Order | Benedictine |
Denomination | Catholic |
Site | |
Location | Landkreis of Starnberg (Upper Bavaria) |
Country | Germany |
Coordinates | 47°59′N 11°11′E / 47.983°N 11.183°ECoordinates: 47°59′N 11°11′E / 47.983°N 11.183°E |
Website | www![]() |
The Benedictine priory and erstwhile abbey of Andechs is a place of pilgrimage on a hill east of the Ammersee in the Landkreis of Starnberg (Upper Bavaria) in Germany, in the municipality Andechs. Andechs Abbey is famed for its flamboyant Baroque church and its brewery, Klosterbrauerei Andechs. Composer Carl Orff is buried in the church.
The heilige Berg[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Andechs1_2005.jpg/280px-Andechs1_2005.jpg)
In 955, relics brought from Rome and the Holy Land by Rasso, count of Diessen, to his monastery at Wörth (later called Grafrath) were transferred to the heilege Berg (holy mountain) to preserve them from the ravages of the Hungarians. In the 12th century three hosts, reputed to have been consecrated by Pope Gregory I and Pope Leo IX, were added to the relics at the heilige Berg. The first documented pilgrimages to Andechs were in 1138, when count Berthold II ordered his subjects to make the journey to venerate the relics in the chapel of St Nicholas at the Schloss. The legendary rediscovery of long-lost reliquaries in 1388 revived the ancient pilgrimage trade. The Andechs hosts were approved by Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, otherwise a foe of such cults of wonder hosts.[1]
The late-Gothic collegiate church which Duke Ernest I (1392 – 1438) had erected in 1423 was changed into a Benedictine monastery by Duke Albert III in 1455, and filled with monks from Tegernsee Abbey. In 1458 it was raised to the status of an abbey, and thenceforth enjoyed a period of uninterrupted prosperity, completely remodeled in Baroque style in 1712, and forming part of the Hofmark Erling (Heiliger Berg Andechs) until its secularization in 1803. It was refounded in 1850 as a Benedictine priory, affiliated to the Abbey of St Boniface in Munich. The present church dates from the 18th century. The 20th-century German composer Carl Orff is buried there. There are also the graves of 11 members of the House of Wittelsbach inside the church, mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries. More recent burials of members of the former Bavarian Royal Family took place on a graveyard in the abbey garden, installed by Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria in 1977, due to the fact that the royal tomb at Theatine Church, Munich had no more space.
, huddled at the foot of the abbey, was created as an independent town in 1818. Erling, Frieding and Machtlfing were united in 1978 as the Gemeinde Andechs.
People[]
Monks[]
- Anton Pelchinger, illustrator
Burials[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Kloster_Andechs%2C_Wallfahrtskirche_Stk_Nikolaus_und_Elisabeth_auf_dem_%27Heiligen_Berg%27_%2813032599453%29.jpg/220px-Kloster_Andechs%2C_Wallfahrtskirche_Stk_Nikolaus_und_Elisabeth_auf_dem_%27Heiligen_Berg%27_%2813032599453%29.jpg)
- Carl Orff, 20th-century German composer
- Prince Konrad of Bavaria
- Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria
- Prince Konstantin of Bavaria
- Prince Heinrich of Bavaria (1922–1958)
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Mitchell B. Merback, Pilgrimage and Pogrom: Violence, Memory and Visual Culture at the Host Miracle Shrines of Germany and Austria, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012, 163-170.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kloster Andechs. |
Further reading[]
Birgitta Klemenz, Kloster Andechs, Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2005. ISBN 3-7954-1670-1, ISBN 978-3-7954-1670-6
- Religious buildings and structures completed in 1423
- 1423 establishments in Europe
- Christian monasteries established in the 15th century
- Augustinian monasteries in Germany
- Benedictine monasteries in Germany
- Roman Catholic churches in Bavaria
- Monasteries in Bavaria
- Beer and breweries in Bavaria
- Catholic pilgrimage sites
- Buildings and structures in Starnberg (district)
- Burial sites of European royal families
- Burial sites of the House of Wittelsbach