Huysburg

Huysburg Priory
Floor plan of Huysburg

Huysburg ([ˈhyːsbʊrk]) or Huysburg Priory (Priorat Huysburg), formerly Huysburg Abbey (Kloster Huysburg), is a Benedictine monastery situated on the Huy, a mountainous area near Halberstadt, in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.

First foundation: Huysburg Abbey

Founded in 1080, Huysburg Abbey was among the earliest monasteries to join the reform movement of the Bursfelde Congregation in the late 15th century. It was one of the very few Catholic monasteries of the region which survived the Reformation under the provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia. The abbey was dissolved in 1804 as part of the secularisation process and its estates were taken by the Prussian State.

Second foundation: Huysburg Priory

The Benedictine community which is now located within the walls of the Huysburg was founded in 1972, and was the only Benedictine monastery in the DDR.

After the establishment of the DDR, a branch seminary of the seminary in the Diocese of Paderborn was set up here for those parts of the diocese lying in the DDR. The seminary was closed in 1993 after the reunification of Germany.

Since September 2004 Huysburg Priory has been joined with St. Matthias' Abbey, Trier, and is now therefore a priory of the abbey. In August 2005 the brothers of St. Matthias' and of the Huysburg priory elected a joint abbot, Ignatius Maass, resident in Trier.

Church

In the Romanesque abbey church is the tomb of the Blessed Ekkehard, the first abbot of Huysburg. In 2004, at his own request, the former apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Magdeburg, Bishop Johannes Braun, was also laid to rest here.

Pilgrimages

The Huysburg is one of the main places of pilgrimage in the Diocese of Magdeburg, and many Catholics come there every year, for example on the first Sunday in September for the Family Pilgrimage of the Diocese.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kloster Huysburg.

Coordinates: 51°57′37″N 11°00′07″E / 51.96028°N 11.00194°E