Oberschönenfeld Abbey, Cistercian nunnery in Gessertshausen, Germany
Oberschönenfeld Abbey is a Cistercian convent near Augsburg featuring a church with ornate Rococo interior, residential buildings for the nuns, and supporting structures around connected courtyards. The entire property spreads across a rural setting with a mix of structures from different periods unified in one architectural ensemble.
The abbey was founded in 1211 and grew into one of the region's major female religious communities. Over the following centuries it developed considerable influence and held land rights over surrounding villages.
The museum in former stable buildings displays regional craft traditions and daily objects from Swabian communities. Visitors can see how people of earlier times lived through items arranged in the converted spaces.
You can purchase traditional bread baked daily in the abbey's own bakery and enjoy the beer garden beneath old chestnut trees. The buildings and pathways are accessible, making it practical for a half-day visit between Augsburg and the surrounding Swabian countryside.
The grounds feature a garden designed after a historical monastery plan that grows medicinal plants as they were cultivated in medieval times. This reconstruction offers a rare glimpse into how monks and nuns organized their herb cultivation centuries ago.
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