Kloster Au am Inn, Franciscan convent in Gars am Inn, Germany
Kloster Au am Inn is a former Augustinian canons' monastery and current Franciscan convent in Gars am Inn. Its Baroque church, Mariä Himmelfahrt, built by Simon Pöllner from 1708 to 1722, is a wall-pillar hall church with side chapels, galleries, a choir rotunda and a twin-tower west facade. The convent buildings, begun by Domenico Cristoforo Zuccalli in 1687, form a palace-like complex with several courtyards.
Around 780 the monks Baldung and Hrodbert founded a cell here; this Benedictine house lapsed in the 10th century. In 1122 Archbishop Konrad I of Salzburg established an Augustinian canons' monastery dedicated to Mary, Felicitas and Vitalis. It was dissolved in 1803 during secularisation, and in 1853 Dillingen Franciscan nuns took over the buildings, founding their own congregation in 1854.
The monastery is dedicated to Mary, Felicitas and Vitalis, and the Franciscan sisters have run a special-needs school here since 1970, now the Franziskushaus with school, day centre and home. A pottery market with about 50 stallholders is held on the fourth weekend of October.
The monastery stands in the Gars am Inn district of Au am Inn, with the parish and monastery church of Mariä Himmelfahrt at its centre; the two west towers were completed in 1737. The Franciscan sisters still run the Franziskushaus here, so parts of the grounds are in daily use. The Bräustüberl, the former monastery brewery inn, reopened on 22 August 2024.
The historic weather bell cast by Anton Benedikt Ernst in 1734 cracked in a major fire in 1969 and now hangs inside the church. The five-bell bronze peal in the towers was cast in 1970 by Karl Czudnochowsky of Erding, with the largest bell in the north tower.
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