- Irsee Abbey
Irsee Abbey (Kloster Irsee, Abtei or Reichsabtei Irsee) is a former Benedictine abbey located at
Irsee nearKaufbeuren inBavaria . It is now a conference and training centre for the Swabian Administrative Region ("Bezirk Schwaben" [http://www.bezirk-schwaben.de/] ).History
Abbey
The monastery, dedicated to the
Virgin Mary , was founded in1186 by Margrave Henry ofRonsberg to house a community that had grown up around a local hermit. It came close to collapse in the 14th century, when the community was reduced to a single monk, and was saved only by the intervention in 1373 of Anna von Ellerbach, the second founder, sister of theBishop of Augsburg , and her appointee, abbot Conrad III, known for his extreme frugality. After severe losses during both thePeasants' War in 1525 and theThirty Years' War in the 17th century, including on both occasions the destruction of the library and on the second occasion of the archives, the abbey was finally able to put itself back on a stable footing in the later 17th century, and at length in 1694 was granted "Reichsunmittelbarkeit ", becoming anImperial abbey ("Reichsabtei"). The monastery was dissolved in the secularisation of 1802 when it became a part ofBavaria . The greater part of the library was moved toMetten Abbey .In 1812 accommodation for the parish priest and local officials was set up in the monastery buildings.
Hospital
From 1849 the premises were used as an asylum and hospital for the mentally ill. Between 1939 and 1945 more than 2,000 patients, both adults and children, were transported by the then regime from Irsee and Kaufbeuren to death camps.
Conference centre
In 1972 the hospital was wound up. The local authority of the district of Schwaben began the restoration of the buildings in 1974, which opened as the "Schwäbische Tagungs- und Bildungszentrum Kloster Irsee" ("Kloster Irsee Swabian Conference and Training Centre") in 1984.
External links
*de icon [http://www.kloster-irsee.de Homepage of the Kloster Irsee Training Centre]
*de icon [http://www.datenmatrix.de/projekte/hdbg/kloster/html-data/geschichte_ks0157.php Klöster in Bayern: Irsee]
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