The monastery was built in the Saxon lands of Eastphalia at the site of a former Pfalz and hunting lodge, mentioned as Elysynaburg in a 995 deed issued by King Otto III. On 15 April 1003 King Henry II donated the estate for this purpose to the Bishop of Halberstadt, and the abbey had been founded by 1009. In 1018 the Halberstadt bishop vested the monastery with further possessions around Ilsenburg and Osterwieck. The first monks possibly descended from Fulda Abbey in Franconia.
Refectory
Fostered by Bishop Burchard II of Halberstadt from about 1070, the convent experienced a flourishing period whereupon numerous filial monasteries were established, such as Huysburg, and the abbeys of Harsefeld, Hillersleben, and Wimmelburg. A larger Romanesque church was erected and dedicated to Sts Peter and Paul on 5 June 1087; including the oldest preserved three-aisled choir of all Benedictine sacral buildings in Germany. The adjacent cloister buildings were erected after a blaze in 1120 and finished in 1176. The monastic community included up to 25 monks, it joined the Benedictine Bursfelde Congregation in 1464/65.
The Vögte, or lords protectors, were the Counts of Wernigerode until 1429, when on their extinction their inheritance passed to the Counts of Stolberg, who were supporters of Lutheranism when the Reformation spread throughout the country. During the Peasants' War in 1525 it was stormed, plundered and largely demolished by rebellious peasants; the monks were driven away, and did not return for several months.
From 1546 onwards the abbey turned Protestant and was subjected to severe changes; in 1555 it became, with its properties and assets, part of the territorial possessions of the Counts. The northern part of the church was demolished in 1573; part of the premises was used for a choral school, as in other monastic properties acquired by the Counts, and considerable re-building and improvements were made for the better accommodation of the function. The Counts' financial difficulties however caused the school to be suspended while the property was mortgaged, and although they regained it in 1608, and indeed lived there themselves for some years, the school finally closed in 1626.
After the Counts finally relocated their residence to Wernigerode in 1716, also the cloister buildings were demolished and the premises were used for commercial purposes. The monastery remained a possession of the House of Stolberg even after the County of Stolberg-Wernigerode was mediatised and incorporated into the Prussian Province of Saxony in 1815. The Ilsenburg manor was finally disseized after World War II in the course of the land reform during Soviet occupation.
Today, the abbey site with its preserved buildings and the adjacent Ilsenburg House, built from 1861 at the behest of Count Otto zu Stolberg-Wernigerode, are managed by the Ilsenburg Abbey Foundation (Stiftung Kloster Ilsenburg).
The Princely Abbey of Corvey is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling princely abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire from the Late Middle Ages until 1792 when Corvey was elevated to a prince-bishopric. Corvey, whose territory extended over a vast area, was in turn secularized in 1803 in the course of the German mediatisation and absorbed into the newly created Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda. Originally built in 822 and 885 and remodeled in the Baroque period, the abbey is an exceptional example of Carolingian architecture, the oldest surviving example of a westwork, and the oldest standing medieval structure in Westphalia. The original architecture of the abbey, with its vaulted hall and galleries encircling the main room, heavily influenced later western Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The inside of the westwork contains the only known wall paintings of ancient mythology with Christian interpretation in Carolingian times. The former abbey church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.
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Alpirsbach Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery and later Protestant seminary located at Alpirsbach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The monastery was established in the late 11th century and possessed considerable freedoms for an ecclesiastical property at that time, but in the 13th century it became a de facto possession of the Dukes of Teck and then the County of Württemberg. In the 15th century, the monastery enjoyed economic prosperity and was expanded but was dissolved with the conversion of the by-then Duchy of Württemberg to Lutheranism in the 16th century. The monastery became a seminary and boarding school until the 17th century and was physically reduced over the 19th century by land sales and demolition. Over the second half of the 20th century, the monastery was turned into a cultural fixture with annual concerts of Classical music and a museum of its history.
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Huysburg is a Benedictine monastery situated on the Huy hill range near Halberstadt, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The Romanesque abbey has existed since about 1080 and was secularised in 1804. A new Benedictine community was founded in 1972 and has been headed by a prior since 1984.
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Stapelburg is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Millstatt Abbey is a former monastery in Millstatt, Austria. Established by Benedictine monks about 1070, it ranks among the most important Romanesque buildings in the state of Carinthia. The Benedictines were succeeded by the knightly Order of Saint George in 1469 and the Society of Jesus in 1598.
The County of Wernigerode was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which arose in the Harzgau region of the former Duchy of Saxony, at the northern foot of the Harz mountain range. The comital residence was at Wernigerode, now part of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The county was ruled by a branch of the House of Stolberg from 1429 until its mediatization to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1806. Nevertheless, the county remained in existence - with one short interruption - until the dissolution of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1918.
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Ilsenburg House stands in the town of Ilsenburg (Harz) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and was given its present appearance in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The structure was built from 1860 onwards on the west and north sides of the Romanesque monastery of Ilsenburg Abbey. The stately home, designed in the Neo-Romanesque style, was the seat of the princes of Stolberg-Wernigerode until 1945. Since 2005, it has been owned by the Ilsenburg Abbey Foundation.
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