Seemannshausen Abbey

Seemannshausen Monastery is a former Augustinian Hermits monastery in the district of the same name in the municipality of Gangkofen in Lower Bavaria in the Diocese of Regensburg.

The monastery, dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, was founded on April 20, 1255, by Heinrich Seemann, cathedral dean in Regensburg, on the noble estate of Pölnkofen, initially as a monastery for Wilhelmites. On February 2, 1263, the Wilhelmites were forced by Regensburg Bishop Leo Thundorfer (1262-77) to switch to the newly founded Order of Augustinian Hermits. On May 27, 1264, the first chapter of the newly founded German province of the Augustinian Hermits took place in Seemannshausen, as did the chapters of 1343, 1420, 1621, 1629, and 1633. Presumably, the first German provincial Engelbert (1265-1273/75) also came from the convent.

On September 3, 1335, Seemannshausen was elevated to a monastic court district by Duke Heinrich XIV of Lower Bavaria. Emperor Ludwig IV the Bavarian granted the brothers a valuable salt privilege on April 22, 1343.

The monastery was dissolved on February 23, 1802, in the course of the secularization of the mendicant orders in Bavaria, and the conventuals were relocated to Munich on September 17, 1802. The church was demolished, the monastery buildings auctioned off and also partially demolished. Today, a restaurant with a private brewery is located in the preserved west and north wings.