Ettal Abbey

Ettal Abbey (German: Kloster Ettal) is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Ettal close to Oberammergau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. With a community (as of 2005) of more than 50 monks, with another five at Wechselburg, the Abbey is one of the largest Benedictine houses and is a major attraction for visitors.

Ettal Abbey was founded on 28 April 1330, Saint Vitalis of Milan's day, by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in the Graswang valley, in fulfilment of an vow, on his return from his coronation in Rome, on a site of strategic importance on the primary trade route between Italy and Augsburg. The foundation legend is that Ludwig's horse genuflected three times on the site of the original church building, where a marble statuette of the Madonna and Child ("Frau Stifterin" or the "Ettal Madonna") now stands. The statuette was brought by Ludwig from Pisa as a gift for his new foundation. It soon became an object of pilgrimage. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

The foundation originally consisted of a Benedictine double monastery – a community for men and another for women – and also a house of the Teutonic Knights.

The original Gothic abbey church, built between 1330 and 1370, was a modest structure in comparison to the great churches of medieval Bavaria.

The abbey suffered great damage during the Reformation at the hands of the troops of Maurice of Saxony, but survived the troubles of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).

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