Neustadt Abbey

The Neustadt am Main Monastery is today a monastery of the Missionary Dominican Sisters in Neustadt am Main in Bavaria in the Diocese of Würzburg and is located between Lohr and Marktheidenfeld.

The first monastery in Neustadt am Main, then called Rorinlacha, was located at the "Alte Statt" (Old Place). It was founded either by Burkard, around 738, or Megingaud, around 741. The first monastery in the valley was excavated in 1981/82 by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation. The second Benedictine monastery in the valley of Neustadt am Main, at the "Neue Statt" (New Place), was founded in 772, on behalf of Charlemagne, by the former second Bishop of Würzburg, Megingaud. It had been a royal monastery since 772. It was dissolved in 1803 during the secularization. The monastery with its extensive library came into the possession of Prince Konstantin von Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Remains of the Neustadt monastery library, which the Prince had kept in his Kleinheubach castle, were acquired by the University Library Würzburg in 1985. In 1857, the monastery buildings and church burned down. In 1960, the ruin was blown up, and in 1961, a new monastery complex was consecrated on the same site by the Missionary Dominican Sisters (Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena of Oakford/Natal).