Freystadt Abbey

The origins of the monastery date back to 1452, when a Franciscan hospitium was established on Möningerberg at the suggestion of Saint John Capistran by Count Palatine Otto II. However, this was dissolved in 1556 as a result of the Reformation in Freystadt. A new foundation took place in 1681 outside the city near the pilgrimage church of Maria Hilf, initiated by Countess Maria Theresia von Tilly. Initially under the care of the Franciscans of Dietfurt, the settlement developed. From 1705, friars were again allowed to reside permanently on site, and in 1710, Prince-Bishop Johann Anton I. Knebel von Katzenelnbogen approved the construction of an independent hospitium, which was built by Ferdinand Lorenz Graf Tilly until 1715. The separation from the Dietfurt monastery occurred in 1711, and the community grew steadily. After the secularization in 1802/03, the monastery changed hands several times until it came into the possession of the city of Freystadt in 1833.