Ensdorf Abbey, Benedictine monastery in Ensdorf, Germany

Ensdorf Abbey is a Benedictine monastery comprising several buildings arranged in traditional Bavarian style around a prominent central church. The complex displays stone construction and classic monastic layouts that have developed across the centuries.

Founded in 1121 by Count Palatine Otto V of Scheyern and Bishop Otto of Bamberg, the monastery was dissolved in 1556 under Elector Ottheinrich. It was refounded in 1669 as a priory of Prüfening and raised to an independent abbey in 1695. The church, begun in 1694, was consecrated on 8 October 1717; the abbey was dissolved again in 1802 and taken over by the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1920.

The abbey church is dedicated to Saint James the Elder; the first wooden church was consecrated on 25 July 1123, and the present baroque building was consecrated on 8 October 1717. Since 1920 the Salesians of Don Bosco have run a youth education house, an environmental station and an environmental music workshop on the premises.

The abbey stands in the centre of Ensdorf, in the Upper Palatinate north of Regensburg. The Salesians of Don Bosco have run the premises since 1920 as a youth education house, an environmental station and an environmental music workshop, so parts of the complex are in active use. The church, rebuilt from 1694 and consecrated in 1717, is the main structure to look for; the square clock tower with its dark cupola marks the entrance side.

The founding in 1121 by Pfalzgraf Otto V. von Scheyern fulfilled the wish of his father-in-law Friedrich III. von Pettendorf-Lengenfeld-Hopfenohe, who died in 1119, for a family burial place. The count, his wife Heilika and other relatives were buried in the monastery church; their two lead coffins were found in 1695 under the choir altar and reburied in 1721 in the mausoleum built under Abbot Bonaventura.