Kaisheim Abbey

Kaisheim Abbey (formerly also Kaisersheim, Latin "Caesarea") is a former Cistercian abbey in the market town of Kaisheim in the Diocese of Augsburg in Bavarian Swabia.

The monastery was founded in 1133 by Count Heinrich III of Lechsgemünd and his wife Liukardis as a daughter house of Lucelle Abbey in Alsace, which itself was a daughter foundation of Bellevaux Abbey from the filiation of the primary abbey Morimond. In 1273, Kaisheim founded the daughter monastery of Stams in the Tyrolean Inn Valley. It was probably formally an Imperial Abbey since 1370, but only from 1656 could the monastery assert its imperial immediacy against the Dukes of Bavaria. Since this time, Pielenhofen Abbey also belonged to Kaisheim Abbey as a sub-priory. At Christmas 1778, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stayed as a guest of Imperial Prelate Cölestin Angelprugger, whom he had met in Mannheim, at the monastery, which was dissolved in 1802 with the secularization.

The monastery complex was initially militarily occupied by the Bavarian state. Subsequently, Kaisheim served as the central monastery for the dissolved Bavarian Franciscan province. From 1816, the buildings were used as a penal workhouse and penitentiary. Today, a correctional facility, the JVA Kaisheim, is still located in the buildings. In the east wing, the so-called Kaisersaal wing, the permanent exhibition "Behind Bars" in the Bavarian Prison Museum has been housed since 1989.

Of particular architectural significance, in addition to the former monastery church, are the Kaisersaal and the Library Hall. The furnishings of the Library Hall, created around 1730, a richly decorated two-story gallery system running around three sides, were moved in 1804 to the former Provincial Library (now the State Library Neuburg an der Donau) and installed there in the former Congregation Hall.

The summer residence of the Kaisheim abbots was located a few kilometers away in Leitheim Castle.