Altomünster

Saint Alto & Saint Brigitta

This monastery was originally founded by a monk named Alto in the year 740, burned down by Magyar armies in 1000 and then rebuilt by the Guelph dukes in 1047.

It was later expanded by the Briggittine order into a "Doppelkloster" to include full and separate monestaries for nuns and monks. This monastery church is unique in that it incorporates three different churches in one: The main level for the village congregation, a separate, level above for the nuns (with their own separate entrance from the cloister) and another, third church screened off from the rest between the main alter and the high alter for the monks - all three groups could attend the same service without ever seeing each other!

The monastery was dissolved during the Secularization period (in 1802-1803), but four (brave) nuns refused to leave. In 1841, the nun's cloister officially was restored.