The Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites The Younger

The Monastery of Saint Simeon Stylites the Younger (Turkish: Aziz Simon manastır) lies on a hill roughly 29 kilometers southwest of Antakya and 6 kilometers to the east of Samandağ, in the southernmost Turkish province of Hatay. This was said to stand on the «miraculous mountain», possibly because it was near Mt. Cassius which was […]
Tegernsee Abbey

The abbey in Tegernsee is a former Benedictine monastery that is located directly on Lake Tegernsee. The abbey, like the town that grew out of it, is named after the lake, whose name can be translated from the Old German, tegarin seo, meaning large lake. Founded in the 8th century, the abbey represented one of […]
Kornelimünster Abbey

The Kornelimünster Abbey was founded in 814 on the Inde River by Benedict of Aniane (750–821), at the suggestion of Louis the Pious, son and successor of Charlemagne. The cloister was originally called Redeemer Cloister on the Inde (Erlöserkloster an der Inde). In the middle of the 9th century, the cloister was given imperial immediacy […]
Premonstraten Monastery Schäftlarn

Schäftlarn Monastery, located on the Isar River, is one of the most original monasteries in Bavaria. Its status as the spiritual and cultural center of southern Munich is also due to the fact that it has been the only active monastery in the Munich district for over 1200 years. In 762 Waltrich, a Benedictine monk […]
The Monastery of Soumela

The Monastery of Soumela is a Greek Orthodox monastery which was dedicated to Theotokos. The monastic complex is located at Karadag (Black Mountain, Sou Mela) which is a part of Pontic Mountains and today in Maçka, Trabzon. Soumela is nestled in a steep cliff at an altitude of about 1200 meters, facing the Altindere Valley. […]
The Monastery of Mor Augin

The monastic complex of Mor Augin lies high above the Plain of Nusaybin among the steep cliffs of Mount Izlo, part of the historical region of the Ṭūr ‘Abdīn and currently located in the Turkish Province of Mardin. According to the local tradition, this is the most ancient monastery in the area, founded in the […]
Daphni Monastery

The Daphni Monastery lies in Chaidari along the route of the ancient Hiera Odos to Eleusis. It stands on a site where in the antiquity was the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnaios; the latter was destroyed in 395 when the Goths invaded Attica. The only still visible remain in situ is an Ionic column in the […]
Monastery of Saint John the Theologian

Patmos was a place of exile in Roman times, where also the Apostle John the Theologian was exiled. On this island he wrote down his Apocalypse/Last Judgement. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I gave Patmos to the monk Christodoulos who had previously been a monk in Asia Minor. In 1088, he founded the monastery on the […]
Benedictine Monastery of Seligenstadt

The monastery, founded in 828, is surrounded by a huge garden, which has been originally designed by the founder himself. In the middle ages this garden was used to produce plants for the population arround the monastery. The monastery consists of a main buildiung, which is divided into two parallel sections surrounding an inner court. […]
St. Peter Cathedral

The Fritzlar Cathedral St. Peter is one of the most important architectural monuments in northern Hesse in terms of history and architecture. The history of the cathedral and the city of Fritzlar begins around 723, when St. Boniface founded a Benedictine monastery on that site. A few years later, around 732, a first stone church […]