Regensburg - Sankt Emmeram

Kloster St. Emmeram (St. Emmeram's Abbey) was founded in about 739. The church was erected over the tomb of St. Emmeram. Emmeram was one of the early wandering missionaries in Bavaria. He came from Poitiers, where he had been bishop, and was martyred in 652.
Saint Wolfgang of Regensburg (924 - 994) was abbot here, before he became bishop of Regensburg. Wolfgang and his successor Blessed Ramwod connected the abbey to the monastic reforms of Gorze. A century later St. Emmeram´s Abbey was one of the centers of the Cluniac Reforms in Southern Germany. William of Hirsau and (his friend) Ulrich of Zell "aka "Ulrich of Cluny") were both educated here.

During that years, St. Emmeram´s was an intellectual hub. The scriptorium was a centre of book production and illumination ("Uta Codex"). - The importance declined, but during the 16th century the abbey enjoyed a resurgence particularly in the natural sciences. In 1731, the abbots were raised to the status of Reichsfuersten ("Princes of the Empire"), what triggered a Baroque refurbishment od the buildings, lead by the Asam brothers.

The secularisation ended the monastic life and in 1812 the buildings were granted to the Princes of Thurn and Taxis, who had St. Emmeram's Abbey converted as a residence, known as "Schloss Thurn und Taxis".

The family of Thurn und Taxis still lives in the former monastery, while the former abbey church now is the parish church St. Emmeram. The narthex seen here still has some Romanesque reliefs.