Irsee Abbey

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Irsee Abbey Church

Irsee Abbey or Irsee Monastery (also 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 [1]).

[edit] History

The monastery, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was founded in 1186 by Margrave Henry of Ronsberg. It became an imperial abbey in the 15th century and it 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.

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.

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.