Gnadental Monastery

The church of the Cistercian monastery of Gnadental, founded by Konrad von Krautheim in 1243 and moved to its present location in 1245, was built around the middle of the 13th century in the early Gothic style. The monastery was closed in 1551 under the influence of the Reformation by the Counts of Hohenlohe, who had previously served as patron. While the monastery church survived the times as a parish church, most of the other monastery buildings were demolished except for a few remains. Today's church space includes the choir, the former lay church and part of the nun's gallery, on which there is a pretty, small organ from 1717. The rest of the church is used as a parish hall. Characteristic are the narrow, mostly two-lane windows and the beautiful stone carvings with diamond cut and rosette ornaments. There are small bird sculptures to be discovered in the choir, elaborate tombstones in the anteroom, among other things. the last abbess Helene von Hohenlohe, who died in 1542. On the north side of the church, to which the cemetery is connected, the beginnings of the enclosure and the remains of the cloister can be seen.