Ebrach Abbey

The monastery was founded in 1127 as the first right-bank Cistercian monastery in Germany by the brothers Berno and Richwin, Franconian Edelfrei, in the wooded valley of the Middle Ebrach and subordinated to the mother monastery Morimond. The founding legend of the monastery relates that a boar had given the monks the place to found the monastery by tearing their abbot's staff and dropping him at the site of the later monastery. The abbot's staff and the boar therefore appear repeatedly in the abbot coat of arms and until today in the municipal coat of arms of Ebrach. The founding convention consisted of twelve monks and the abbot Adam. As a co-founder and the later Hohenstaufen King Konrad III. whose wife Gertrud 1146 and son Frederick were buried in 1167 in the 1134 consecrated first monastery church at Ebrach. It was in the area of today's southern aisle.
Source: Wikipedia

The former Cistercian abbey in Ebrach is probably one of the most important places in northern Bavaria. The Gothic church with the baroque monastery complex is a popular destination in the western Bamberg region. Almost a thousand years ago, the monks created one of the most beautiful early Gothic buildings in Germany from scratch in the depths of the Steigerwald.

The huge buildings of the monastery dominate this tranquil, state-approved resort in the valley of the Middle Ebrach. The Cistercian monastery was founded in 1127. Today, only the former abbey church serves sacral purposes. The main part of the building houses a juvenile detention center, the largest in Bavaria.