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- The "District of Upper Bavaria", a public regional administrative body with its seat in Munich, purchased the ruins in 1986 and invested 30 million euros in completely restoring the complex to stop this cultural monument from going to rack and ruin and to put it to good use. When the "Cultural and Educational Centre for the District of Upper Bavaria" was opened in mid-1993, Seeon monastery once again became the focus of public attention, reviving centuries-old spiritual traditions from a modern perspective. And although monks no longer live in Seeon monastery, St. Benedict's Rule serves as inspiration and a timeless guideline for running the place today. In the meantime countless conference delegates, concert and exhibition goers and tourists from all over the world have discovered the jewel of Seeon for themselves.
c. 994 The Benedictine monastery was founded by Aribo I, Count Palatine, and inhabited by monks from St. Emmeram in Regensburg.
11th C. An important "scriptorium" was established, principally at the behest of Holy Roman emperor Henry II, founder of the diocese of Bamberg.
11th/12th C. The Romanesque basilica was built (of which the church towers, porch and portal dating from 1080 and the foundation walls of the nave, have been preserved) and consecrated some time around 1200.
1247 The Wittelsbachers took over the office of church advocate and represented the monastery in legal matters.
1428-1433ff The monastery church was rebuilt in Late Gothic style and new buildings were added around the cloisters by master builders Konrad and Oswald Pürkel from Burghausen.
1561 On 18 April a devastating fire destroyed much of the monastery. Miraculously the church, the abbot's chapel of St. Nicholas, the infirmary, "several vaults and two small chambers" survived.
from 1634 Under Abbot Honorat Kolb, comprehensive rebuilding and extension work was carried out.
1655-1657 The east wing was rebuilt as a dormitory divided into a series of cells and taken into use.
from 1665ff The new monastery buildings were completed (the south wing was finished in 1670).
1695 The Maierhof was built.
17th/18th C. The monastery devoted itself to music, literature and science; W. A. Mozart composed music for Seeon.
c. 1757 A second storey was added to the old prelature and the first floor rooms were redesigned including Rococo stucco work in the north-western corner room on the second floor and stucco work by Johann Michael Feichtmayr plus frescos by Joseph Hartmann in the prelate's chapel of St. Nicholas (facing east) on the first floor.
1803 The monastery was dissolved.
1804 With the exception of the church and sacristy, chapter house, treasury, the monks' choir, cloisters and quadrangle, the entire monastery complex, including all its fields and forests, was sold to master baker Franz Xaver Distler from Munich. Distler and his family set up in business as brewers.
1815-1852 The monastery buildings passed into the hands of Georg Reichenwallner who used them to house a spa pool in 1816.
1852 The monastery complex was sold to Doña Amalia, a daughter from the marriage of Auguste Amalia, daughter of the King of Bavaria, and Eugene Beauharnais, step-son of Emperor Napoleon I.
1873 The monastery was inherited by Josephine, Queen of Sweden and Norway, who sold the complex to Nicholas Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince Romanovsky in the same year.
1891 His sons Nicholas and George Nikolaevich, Dukes of Leuchtenberg, inherited the property.
1914 George Duke of Leuchtenberg came into sole possession of the monastery complex.
1934 The monastery was put up for compulsory auction and bought by the "Schlossbrauerei Wiskott" brewery in Stein an der Traun, who leased the site to the German Reich government to set up a school for storm troopers. It was also used by the Reich labour service until 1945.
1945/46 Set up as a military hospital after the war.
1946/47 Used as a refugee camp.
1953 The former monastery buildings were sold by Schlossbrauerei Stein to Walter and Josephine Hirschfeld who set up a furniture factory there and rented parts of the building to the Bavarian State Government.
1958-1963 Used by the Federal Border Guard.
1963-1978 Used by the Bavarian riot police.
1978 The site was purchased by the Archbishopric of Munich-Freising.
1986 Sold to the District of Upper Bavaria.
1989 Restoration and conversion work commenced.
1993 The District of Upper Bavaria's Cultural and Educational Centre was officially opened.
Further information on the history of Seeon monastery can be found in our brochure "Kloster Seeon im Spiegel der Zeit" (Seeon monastery through the ages) which you can download here as a pdf file (file size 2.6 MB, in German).