Banz Abbey now known as Banz Castle (German: Schloss Banz), is a former Benedictine monastery, since 1978 a part of the town of Bad Staffelstein

Bad Staffelstein

Bad Staffelstein is a small town in the Bavarian Administrative Region of Upper Franconia in Germany. It is known for the beautiful landscape that surrounds it, which has been given the name "Gottesgarten am Obermain"...

 north of Bamberg

Bamberg

Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, southern Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

History

The abbey was founded in about 1070 by Countess Alberada of Schweinfurt

Schweinfurt

Schweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km northeast of Würzburg.- History :...

 and her husband, Count Hermann of Habsberg-Kastl, and until the secularisation of 1803 was the oldest monastery on the upper Main.

In the late Middle Ages and until 1575 only members of the nobility were accepted as monks.

After the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 the abbey had to be re-built. The abbots Eucharius Weiner and Kilian Düring commissioned Johann Leonhard Dientzenhofer

Leonhard Dientzenhofer

Leonhard Dientzenhofer wasa German builder and architect from the well known Dientzenhofer family of architect....

 and after his death in 1707, his brother Johann Dientzenhofer

Johann Dientzenhofer

Johann Dientzenhofer was a builder and architect during the Baroque period in Germany.Johann was born in St. Margarethen near Rosenheim, Bavaria, a member of the famous Dientzenhofer family of German architects, who were among the leading builders in the Bohemian and German Baroque which included...

. Construction began in 1698.
The church, built in of Baroque style

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

, was consecrated in 1719. The interior is unexpectedly built, not with right angles, but with a series of ellipses. The main altar, the chancel and the statues of saints in the church and on the facade are by Balthasar Esterbauer; the ceiling frescoes are by Melchior Steidl. The choir stalls were made by the court cabinet maker and ebonist of Schönborn, Johann Georg Nesstfell.

In the second half of the 18th century Banz Abbey was known throughout the Holy Roman Empire as a place of Catholic enlightenment and for the scholarship of its monks. This did not save it from secularisation and dissolution in 1803.

After dissolution

In 1813 Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria

Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria

Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria, full German name: Wilhelm, Herzog in Bayern was Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen between 1789 and 1799 and first Duke in Bavaria from 16 February 1799 until his death in 1837...

, acquired the former abbey premises, which were thereafter known as Schloss Banz ("Banz Castle").

In 1933 Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria

Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria

Duke Ludwig Wilhelm Karl Norbert Theodor Johann in Bavaria was a Bavarian noble.- Life :...

, sold the buildings to the Community of the Holy Angels ("Gemeinschaft von den heiligen Engeln"), an order dedicated to the spiritual care of expatriate Germans. Since 1978 the former monastery has been in the possession of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, an organisation closely associated with the political party the CSU

Christian Social Union of Bavaria

The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...

 in Bavaria, and is used as a conference centre.

It also accommodates a collection of fossils and other curiosities, such as Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian mummies.

Sources

• Dippold, G., 1991. Kloster Banz. Natur, Kultur, Architektur. Staffelstein: Obermain Buch- und Bildverlag.
• Wüst, W., 2001. Kloster Banz als ein benediktinisches Modell. Zur Stiftsstaatlichkeit in Franken. in: "Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte" 70 (2001), pp. 44-72.

External links

Official website Klöster in Bayern: Kloster Banz History of the Upper Main: Banz Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Kloster Banz

This article is translated from the equivalent on the German Wikipedia