DE-3489910 Kloster Ettal (Ettal Abbey)

Ettal Abbey (Kloster Ettal) is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Ettal close to Oberammergau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. With a community of more than 50 monks the Abbey is one of the largest Benedictine houses and is a major attraction for visitors.

Kloster Ettal was founded on 28 April 1330. It originally consisted of a Benedictine double monastery – a community for men and another for women – and also a house of the Teutonic Knights. The original Gothic abbey church, built between 1330 and 1370, was a modest structure in comparison to the great churches of mediaeval Bavaria.

The abbey suffered great damage during the Reformation at the hands of the troops from Saxony but survived the troubles of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).

The abbey was dissolved in 1803 during the secularization of church property in Bavaria but in 1900, the abbey was given to the Benedictines of Scheyern Abbey, who re-founded the monastery. The abbey church of the Ascension was declared a basilica minor in 1920.

This postcard came from Jessica (16 September 2014) Postcrossing.