Irsee Abbey

thumb|Irsee Abbey Church
Irsee Abbey (Kloster Irsee, Abtei or Reichsabtei Irsee) is a former Benedictine abbey located at Irsee near Kaufbeuren in Bavaria. It is now a conference and training centre for the Swabian Administrative Region (Bezirk Schwaben ).
==History==
===Abbey===
The monastery, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was founded in 1186 by Margrave Henry of Ronsberg to house a community that had grown up around a local hermit. It came close to collapse in the 14th century, when the community was reduced to a single monk, and was saved only by the intervention in 1373 of Anna von Ellerbach, the second founder, sister of the Bishop of Augsburg, and her appointee, abbot Conrad III, known for his extreme frugality. After severe losses during both the Peasants' War in 1525 and the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, including on both occasions the destruction of the library and on the second occasion of the archives, the abbey was finally able to put itself back on a stable footing in the later 17th century, and at length in 1694 was granted Reichsunmittelbarkeit, becoming an Imperial abbey (Reichsabtei). The monastery was dissolved in the secularisation of 1802 when it became a part of Bavaria. The greater part of the library was moved to Metten Abbey. 
In 1812 accommodation for the parish priest and local officials was set up in the monastery buildings.
===Hospital===
From 1849 the premises were used as an asylum and hospital for the mentally ill. Between 1939 and 1945 more than 2,000 patients, both adults and children, were transported by the then regime from Irsee and Kaufbeuren to death camps.
===Conference centre===
In 1972 the hospital was wound up. The local authority of the district of Schwaben began the restoration of the buildings in 1974, which opened as the Schwäbische Tagungs- und Bildungszentrum Kloster Irsee ("Kloster Irsee Swabian Conference and Training Centre") in 1984.
==External links==
* Homepage of the Kloster Irsee Training Centre
* Klöster in Bayern: Irsee
== Images ==
Image:Abbey Irsee 101.JPG|Irsee Abbey
Image:Abbey Irsee 102.JPG|Nave
Image:Abbey Irsee 104.JPG|Main altar
Image:Abbey Irsee 106.JPG|Decorations in front of the Main altar
Image:Abbey Irsee 109.JPG|Statue of Saint Roch
Image:Abbey Irsee 130.JPG|Decoration on the vault
Image:Abbey Irsee 132.JPG|Frescos on the vault
Image:Abbey Irsee 120.JPG|Pulpit in the shape of a ship
Image:Abbey Irsee 122.JPG|Decorations on the pulpit
Image:Abbey Irsee 124.JPG|Decorations on the sounding board above the pulpit
Category:Benedictine monasteries in Germany
Category:Monasteries in Bavaria
Category:Imperial abbeys
Category:1186 establishments
Category:Religious organizations established in the 1180s
Category:Hospitals in Germany
Category:Hospitals established in the 1840s
Category:Christian monasteries established in the 12th century
de:Kloster Irsee
nl:Abdij Irsee