Ensdorf Abbey

Ensdorf Abbey was founded in 1121 by Count Palatine Otto of Wittelsbach and Bishop Otto of Bamberg. It served as a burial place for the family of the Count Palatine's father-in-law, Friedrich III. of Pettendorf-Lengenfeld-Hopfenohe. The first Benedictine monks came from the reform monastery of Sankt Blasien in the Black Forest. An initial wooden church was consecrated in 1123, followed by a stone Romanesque building in 1179/80. From 1166, Ensdorf temporarily existed as a double monastery, with the women's convent being dissolved again in 1314. After a period of decline in the 14th century, the monastery experienced a flourishing from 1413 due to the Kastl Reform. In the 15th century, the church and cloister were Gothicized. A fire in 1507 initiated a decline, leading to the dissolution of the monastery in 1556. In 1669, Ensdorf was refounded as a priory and elevated to an independent abbey in 1695.