Rinchnach Priory Explained

Rinchnach Priory (German: Kloster Rinchnach) was a Benedictine monastery at Rinchnach in Bavaria, Germany.

History

The monastery, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, was founded in 1011 by Saint Gunther, a Benedictine monk of Niederaltaich Abbey, as the first settlement in the central Bavarian Forest. In 1029 Emperor Conrad II endowed the monastery with land. It was made a priory of Niederaltaich in 1040, when Saint Gunther moved on to Gutwasser (the present Dobra Voda) in Bohemia.^[1]

In 1488 (?) the Hussites burnt the monastery down.August 2022. In 1703 it was pillaged by Hungarian regiments, but restored in 1708 by Niederaltaich Abbey.^[2]

The monastery was dissolved in 1803 as a result of the secularisation of Bavaria, and its estates were auctioned off.

Further reading

• Dengler, Josef: Rinchnach. Kirche St. Johannes der Täufer. Ehem. Propsteikirche (publ. Kath. Pfarramt Rinchnach, Peda-Kunstführer Nr. 803/2010), Passau 2010 (with bibliography)
• Ecclesia Rimichinaha/Propstei – Rinchnach/Klousta – Vom zentralen Klosterort des Mittleren Bay. Waldes (1011/12–1803) zur selbstbewussten Gemeinde. Katalog zur Ausstellung 2011 (exhibition catalogue publ. by the Rinchnacher Arbeitskreis Geschichte und Kultur), Rinchnach 2011
• Hemmerle, Josef: Die Benediktinerklöster in Bayern (Germania Benedictina Bd. 2), München 1970, pp. 261–263

Notes and References

1. http://www.hdbg.eu/kloster/index.php/detail/geschichte?id=KS0350 Klöster in Bayern: Rinchnach
2. Bauer, Sven: Kloster Rinchnach. Seine Geschichte von der Gründung bis zur Säkularisation. (ed. Ursula Grabmaier), Rinchnach 2011