Banz Abbey (), now known as Banz Castle (), is a former

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery, since 1978 a part of the town of Bad Staffelstein north of

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, southern

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History

The abbey was founded in about 1070 by Countess Alberada of

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a town#Germany, city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding Schweinfurt (district), district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultur ...

and her husband, Count Hermann of Habsburg-Kastl, and until the secularisation of 1803 was the oldest monastery on the upper Main. In the late Middle Ages and until 1575 only members of the nobility were accepted as monks. After the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

the abbey had to be rebuilt. The abbots Eucharius Weiner and Kilian Düring commissioned Johann Leonhard Dientzenhofer and after his death in 1707, his brother Johann Dientzenhofer. Construction began in 1698. The church, built in

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

, was consecrated in 1719. The interior is built, not with right angles, but with a series of ellipses. The main altar, the chancel and the statues of saints in the church and on the façade are by Balthasar Esterbauer; the ceiling frescoes are by Melchior Steidl. The choir stalls were made by the court cabinet maker and ebonist of Schönborn, Johann Georg Nesstfell. In the second half of the 18th century Banz Abbey was known throughout the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

as a place of Catholic enlightenment and for the scholarship of its monks. This did not save it from secularisation and dissolution in 1803.

After dissolution

In 1813 Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria acquired the former abbey premises, which were thereafter known as Schloss Banz ("Banz Castle"). In 1933 Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria sold the buildings to the Community of the Holy Angels (''"Gemeinschaft von den heiligen Engeln"''), an order dedicated to the spiritual care of expatriate Germans. Since 1978 the former monastery has been in the possession of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, an organisation closely associated with the political party CSU, and is used as a conference centre. It also accommodates a collection of fossils and other curiosities, such as

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian mummies. The estate of the former monastery, including vast forests, is today owned by Duke Max Emanuel's eldest daughter Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein.

Sources

*Dippold, G., 1991. ''Kloster Banz. Natur, Kultur, Architektur.'' Staffelstein: Obermain Buch- und Bildverlag. *Wüst, W., 2001. ''Kloster Banz als ein benediktinisches Modell. Zur Stiftsstaatlichkeit in Franken.'' in: "Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte" 70 (2001), pp. 44–72. * Stühlmeyer, B., Stühlmeyer, L., 2016. ''Johann Valentin Rathgeber. Leben und Werk.'' Verlag Sankt Michaelsbund, München 2016, .

External links

*
Official website

Klöster in Bayern: Kloster Banz
*

Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Kloster Banz
{{Coord, 50, 07, 58, N, 11, 00, 03, E, region:DE-BY_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Monasteries in Bavaria Benedictine monasteries in Germany 1070s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Christian monasteries established in the 1070s Baroque architecture in Bavaria Lichtenfels (district) 1803 disestablishments in the Holy Roman Empire Buildings and structures in Upper Franconia

History

After dissolution

See also

Sources

External links