The Benedictine Abbey is located in the southern foothills of the Franconian Jurassic where the Danube carved its narrow river valley one million years ago.

People have been settling on this headland since the Stone Age. Celtic and Roman people had built shrines here. After the decline of the Roman Empire the oldest monastery on the right side of the river Rhine was founded here around the year 610 A.D. in order to do missionary work in the duchy of Baiern.

The last member of the Agilolfinger family, Duke Tassilo III, was the chief benefactor of the abbey.

Very few extremely precious handwritten manuscripts from the 8th to th 13th century have been preserved in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. (Among them the most important written witness of the Benedictine Rule).

Around 1050 the monastery brewery was first mentioned. (Therefore making it the oldest monasterial brewery in the world).
 
After centuries of flood damage and plundering the smallest Benedictine abbey in Bavaria attaineda renaissance under the abbot Maurus Bächl.

He commissioned the two brothers Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin Asam to build the baroque monastery complex and church which was accomplished between 1716 and 1739.

Disbanded in 1803 under Secularization the Benedictine monastery was reopened under King Ludwig I in 1842 as a priory and in 1913 it was raised to an abbey under King Ludwig III.

Today the 14 monks of the abbey perform religious services for several of the surrounding communities. They also continue their work through the Weltenburger Academy pursuing a 1400-year old tradition in Bavarian history and culture.

Further information about the abbey