St. Catherine (Augsburg)

The origins of the women's monastery of St. Katharina date back to 1251, when it was founded under the patronage of the Dominican monastery of St. Magdalena. An initial monastery church was built between 1251 and 1259. The current structure, a two-aisled hall church, was erected from 1516 to 1517 according to designs by Hans Engelberg, with the Dominican church of St. Magdalena serving as a model. Funding was largely provided by the nuns themselves, as well as by a donation from Felicitas Fugger, whose coat of arms was subsequently placed in the choir vault. During the Reformation, the church was closed by the Augsburg council in 1534. A new high altar was donated in 1613 by Prioress Barbara Welser, featuring an altarpiece of Saint Katharina by Johann Matthias Kager. A Baroque redesign took place in 1670, and in 1726, under Prioress Maximiliana Countess Rupp von Falkenstein, the interior received new stucco and a ceiling fresco by Johann Georg Bergmüller, which no longer exists today. With secularization, the convent was dissolved in 1802, and the church was used as a warehouse until 1835. From 1835, St. Katharina housed the State Gallery of Old German Masters, for which the late Gothic building underwent extensive alterations. During foundation work in 1834, fragments of a Roman temple were discovered. In 1960, during renovations on the upper floor, Gothic fresco cycles depicting the history of Magdalena and the legend of Antonius Abbas, donated by Ulrich Walter in 1470, were uncovered.

The former monastery of St. Katharina is situated in the city center of Augsburg, a historic city in Bavaria, Germany.

Today, the former monastery church of St. Katharina houses the State Gallery of Old German Masters and is protected as an architectural monument in Bavaria.

• Fugger Residence (Residence, approx. 161 m away)
• Schaezler Palais (Residence, approx. 162 m away)
• St. Ulrich and Afra Monastery (Sacred building, approx. 469 m away)
• Burggrafenturm (Castle, approx. 768 m away)