Windberg Abbey

The foundation of Windberg Abbey took place in 1125 at the former ancestral seat of the Counts of Bogen. Count Albert II of Bogen initiated its establishment with the support of Bishop Otto I of Bamberg. The consecration of the church's choir area occurred in May 1142 by Bishop Heinrich Zdík of Olomouc. In 1146, Windberg was elevated to an abbey. The abbey church, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, Sabinus, and Serena, was consecrated in November 1167. Under Provost Gebhard, who was called from Bedburg in 1141, the monastery developed into an important center for book illumination and library care. From 1147, Windberg also housed a convent for women, which had its own church. As part of the secularization, the monastery was dissolved in 1803. The church became a parish church, and the prelature served as a rectory. The convent building passed into private ownership and housed a brewery from 1835. In 1923, the monastery was re-established by Premonstratensians from the Netherlands.