Unterliezheim Abbey

Unterliezheim Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Unterliezheim in the municipality of Lutzingen in the district of Dillingen an der Donau in Bavaria.

Front of the monastery

Back of the monastery in the morning sun

Main portal of the monastery church

Unterliezheim Abbey Church

history

In 1026 the Benedictine convent of Liedesheim , presumably the abbey was founded earlier, was handed over to Bishop Bruno of Augsburg by Count Adalbert and his wife Judita (Juta or Gutta) . Since hereditary family names were not yet in use at the time, the document does not indicate to which dynasty the noble couple belonged. A later tradition put the foundation of the monastery in 1152 and named Countess Guta von Werdenberg as the founder , who should have been the wife of Count Adalbert von Dillingen , who is not documented for that early period. There should be no doubt that the founders of the Unterliezheim Monastery are to be found among the Counts of Dillingen, in whose county it was located. In contrast, it is not certain that Countess Judita (Juta or Gutta) belonged to the von Werdenberg family, especially since this was first mentioned in 1228. After the death of Count Hugo II of Montfort , his younger son called himself Rudolf Count von Werdenberg.

Disbanded during the Reformation in 1542, part of the old monastery property was handed over as Hofmark Unterliezheim to the Benedictine monastery Sankt Ulrich und Afra Augsburg in 1632 , which established an exposition (later a provost ) here. The provost Cölestin Mayer, who later became the imperial abbot of St. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg (1735–1753), had the monastery church rebuilt by 1740 at his own expense. Your interior is kept in the Rococo style. A pieta from the 15th century is in the south altar. In the secularization of 1802/03 the monastery was abolished. The monastery church of St. Leonhard became a parish church.

A rose show has been taking place in the Unterliezheim Abbey since 1996, attracting many visitors from near and far. In 2010, at the sixth rose show, a new rose was named after the presumed founder of the monastery: Countess Gutta