Altenburg Abbey

The monastery was founded in 1144 by Hildburg von Poigen-Rebgau, the widow of Gebhard von Poigen, as a small monastery next to her deceased husband's burial church. She endowed it with land and tithe rights and transferred ownership to the Diocese of Passau. Four years later, twelve Benedictine monks from Styria moved into the abbey, naming it "St. Lambrecht zu Altenburg" after their home monastery. The Vogtship over the monastery initially belonged to Hildburg's son Hermann and, after the founding family died out, passed to the Babenbergs. The abbey acquired considerable land through donations. During the Great Turkish War and the Rákóczi Uprising, the abbey was devastated. Under Abbots Maurus Boxler and Placidus Much, the complex received its current Baroque form.