Wilhering Abbey

The monastery was founded in 1146 by the brothers Ulrich and Cholo of Wilhering. Following Ulrich's death, Cholo transferred the foundation to the Cistercian Order, after which thirteen monks from Rein Abbey settled there. Towards the end of the 12th century, the first monastic buildings and a church were erected. Through donations, particularly from the Counts of Schaunberg, the abbey soon acquired considerable wealth and played a significant role in the colonization of the Mühlviertel. It founded daughter monasteries such as Hohenfurth (around 1259), Engelszell (1293), and Säusenstein (1336). During the Reformation, Abbot Erasmus Mayer fled with the monastery treasury in 1544. In the course of the Counter-Reformation, Abbot Alexander a Lacu took over in 1587 and reformed the depleted monastery. A devastating fire in 1733 almost completely destroyed the abbey. Under Abbot Johann IV. Baptist Hinterhölzl, the church and the destroyed building wings were rebuilt. A Romanesque portal, parts of the Gothic cloister, and two valuable tombs remained untouched by the fire. Emperor Joseph II transformed the abbey church into a parish church in 1784 to prevent its closure. Abbot Alois Dorfer (1851–1892) promoted the rediscovery of the Cistercian heritage. From 1895, under Abbot Theobald Grasböck, the monastic school was gradually expanded into a grammar school with a boarding house.

Wilhering Abbey is located in the market town of Wilhering in the Linz Land district, Upper Austria, Austria, at an elevation of approximately 270 meters above sea level.

Wilhering Abbey remains an active Cistercian monastery to this day. It houses a significant art gallery and the Wilhering Abbey Grammar School, established in 1895, which currently has around 500 students. A west wing added in 1955 serves to expand the grammar school.

• Ottensheim Castle (Castle, approx. 1476 m away)
• Puchenau Castle (Castle, approx. 3530 m away)
• Walding Manor (Castle, approx. 3693 m away)
• Danube Fortress Linz-Tower XV (Luitgarde) (Fortress, approx. 4428 m away)