Saalfeld Abbey, Benedictine abbey in Saalfeld, Germany

Saalfeld Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1071 outside the medieval town of Saalfeld, on the Saale. Its Romanesque basilica, dedicated to St. Peter and Paul, stood on the Petersberg plateau above the river. The abbey buildings, including the basilica, were demolished in 1676 to make way for Schloss Saalfeld, built between 1677 and 1720.

Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne, founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter and Paul in 1071, settling monks from St. Michael at Siegburg and St. Pantaleon in Cologne. Pope Honorius II confirmed it in 1124 and Mainz in 1125. The abbey was damaged in the Peasants' War of 1525 and secularised in 1526; the last abbot, Georg von Thüna, sold it to the Counts of Mansfeld, and in 1532 it passed to the House of Wettin. The Romanesque basilica was demolished in 1676 to make way for a palace built from 1677 to 1720.

The abbey's name survives in the site itself: after the Romanesque basilica was demolished in 1676, the ducal palace built between 1677 and 1720 took its place, so Schloss Saalfeld now stands where the monks' church stood. The monastery's Coburg prayer house, founded from 1075, stood on the site of today's Veste Coburg.

The site is easily accessible and located near the Saale River in central Saalfeld. Visitors can see the remaining structures or explore the palace that now occupies the location where the monastery once stood.

The monastery maintained prayer houses in several regions including Coburg and Probstzella, extending its religious influence far beyond Saalfeld itself. This network of dependent properties made it an important ecclesiastical power in eastern Thuringia.