Europe 2016

The original Abbey was founded in 1293 by a Bishop of Passau, as a Cistercian monastery. It was settled in 1295 by monks from Wilhering Abbey. It suffered a considerable decline, both spiritual and financial, in the period of the Protestant Reformation, and for a time passed into private ownership. From 1618 onwards the intervention and support of Wilhering Abbey gradually restored it.

On Easter Sunday 1699, a disastrous fire plunged the abbey once again into financial difficulties and from 1720 it was in the hands of administrators. In 1746, the last of Engelszell's abbots of the Common Observance, was appointed and soon rebuilt the financials. Between 1754 and 1764 the Abbey was rebuilt as the present day abbey church. In 1925, Engelhartszell was occupied and re-founded as a Trappist monastery by refugee German monks expelled after World War I. (Trappist monks are a branch of the Cistercian order of monks founded in 1664 and noted for an austere rule that includes remaining silent for much of the time.)

On 2 December 1939, the abbey was confiscated by the Gestapo and the 73 community members were evicted. Four monks were sent to Dachau Concentration Camp, while others were imprisoned elsewhere or drafted into the Wehrmacht. At the end of the war in 1945, only about a third of the previous community returned. As at 2012, the number of monks in the community was 7.Läs mer