Frauenwörth Abbey is one of the oldest in Bavaria, founded around 782. Since then it has been run…read moreby nuns following the Benedictine order. The "second founder", Irmengard, (d. 866) was the great-granddaughter of Charlemagne and is suitably revered at the Abbey. The modern abbey includes a conference centre but is not open to the public.
The Church is open, however, and worth a visit. Dating from the 10th Century but largely rebuilt in the 11th and 12th Centuries, and with later Baroque altarpieces, it is an atmospheric place, with beautiful marble tombstones (mostly of the Abbesses) and some mediaeval wall paintings. The interior has both Gothic and Romanesque elements, the best of the latter being the capitals and footings of the pillars of the main North doorway, which include carvings of fantastical animal and human heads.
Standing separate is the bell-tower, visible from across the lake, painted white and topped with a distinctive onion dome.
