- Scheyern Abbey
Scheyern Abbey or Scheyern Monastery (Abtei or Kloster Scheyern) is a house of the
Benedictine Order inScheyern inBavaria .First foundation
The monastery at Scheyern was established in 1119 as the final site of the community originally founded in around 1077 at
Bayrischzell by Countess Haziga ofAragon , wife of Otto II, Count of Scheyern, the ancestors of theWittelsbach s. The first monks were fromHirsau Abbey , of which the new monastery was a priory, founded as it was against the background of theInvestiture Controversy and theHirsau Reforms . The original site proved unsuitable for a number of reasons, including difficulties with water supply, and the monastery moved in 1087 to Fischbachau. When that site too proved unsuitable, they moved to Petersberg, in 1104.When Haziga, the widowed Countess of Scheyern, left "Burg Scheyern" ("Scheyern Castle", constructed in about 940), in 1119 for "
Burg Wittelsbach ", the castle from which the family subsequently took their name, the old castle was given to the monks at Petersberg and became Scheyern Abbey, independent of Hirsau.Scheyern was considered a Wittelsbach family monastery, which they used as a place of burial until 1253. They also retained the office of "
Vogt " ("lords protectors").The dedication is to the
Holy Cross and theAssumption of the Virgin Mary ; the monastery have had in their possession since 1180 a relic of the Holy Cross fromJerusalem , and is still today a place of pilgrimage for this reason.By the 13th century it had already gained a reputation for its school of illumination and its
scriptorium .The abbey suffered particularly severely in the
Thirty Years' War and did not participate afterwards in theBaroque revival to the same extent as other monasteries in Bavaria. In the 18th century however it was refurbished in the style of theRococo .On
15 November 1802 the monastery came under the governance of the territorial rulers, and on21 March 1803 it was dissolved as part of the secularisation of Bavaria. The buildings were sold, and changed hands several times in a short period.econd foundation
In 1838 however under
Ludwig I of Bavaria the monastery was re-established, and re-settled by monks fromMetten Abbey ; in 1843 it regained the status of an abbey. Between 1876 and 1878 the church, now serving both the community and the parish, was restored to the Romanesque style.Scheyern possesses a Byzantine Institute, specialised in the works of St. John of Damascus. It also enjoys historical links with Hungary.
Scheyern is a member of the
Bavarian Congregation of theBenedictine Confederation .chools
Shortly after the re-establishment in 1838, a grammar school was opened. In 1939 all schools run by religious orders were closed, including Scheyern Abbey's. After
World War II a humanistic grammar school ("Gymnasium") was opened here. It was replaced however in 1970 by the "Schyrengymnasium" inPfaffenhofen . Once the transfer to the new school was complete, the monastery set up a residential high school for vocational training, the "Staatliche Berufsoberschule", a type of school which was considered very experimental at the time. It opened in 1976 and is still in operation.External links
*de icon [http://www.kloster-scheyern.de/ Scheyern Abbey website]
*de icon [http://www.datenmatrix.de/projekte/hdbg/kloster/html-data/geschichte_ks0365.php Klöster in Bayern: Scheyern]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.