Rebdorf Abbey

The first documentary mention of Rebdorf dates back to 1055, followed by the consecration of a church in the village in 1063. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa transferred the imperial village to Bishop Konrad I of Morsbach of Eichstätt in 1153, who founded the St. Johannes Baptist Augustinian canonry around 1156. The monastery developed successfully spiritually and economically, owning land in 47 locations by 1239. In 1309, the last Count of Hirschberg, Gebhard VII, found his final resting place in the monastery church. After a period of needing reform, the canonry joined the Windesheim Congregation in 1458 and achieved a significant position in humanism under Priors Hieronymus Rotenpeck and Kilian Leib. The canons also looked after the Augustinian canonesses' convent Marienstein, founded in 1460. During the Thirty Years' War, the complex suffered severe damage, which was repaired in the 18th century in the Baroque style. The Romanesque monastery church of St. Johannes the Baptist was rebuilt in 1732, and Gabriel de Gabrieli erected new convent buildings with a castle-like facade. Secularization led to the dissolution of the monastery in 1806, with its possessions and furnishings dispersed.