Zisterzienser Abbey Stams

The monastery was founded in 1273 as a family endowment by the Counts of Görz-Tyrol, Meinhard II and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria. It initially served as a burial place for the Tyrolean rulers. The first monks came from the mother monastery of Kaisheim. In the 16th century, the monastery experienced a period of decline, marked by the Reformation, damage from the Peasants' War, and a fire in 1593. Following a plunder in 1552, the convent significantly shrank. At the beginning of the 17th century, the convent building was reconstructed, and under Abbot Edmund Zoz, the distinctive onion domes were added. Master builder Georg Anton Gumpp baroque-styled the Cistercian abbey at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1807, the monastery was dissolved by the Bavarian government, but it was re-established in 1816 after Tyrol's return to Austria. Another dissolution occurred in 1938/39 by the National Socialists, before it was revived by Cistercian monks in 1945. Extensive general renovations were completed in 2016.

The Cistercian Abbey of Stams is located in Imst, a municipality in Tyrol, Austria. The geographical position of the monastery is at an elevation of approximately 668 meters above sea level.

Today, the abbey houses a museum, a monastery shop, a schnapps distillery, and an alpine pasture. It is the sponsor of the Meinhardinum Stams grammar school and upper secondary school, as well as the Stams boarding school for skiers. Furthermore, it is the seat of the Institute for Social Pedagogy of the Diocese of Innsbruck and a location of the Edith Stein Church Pedagogical University. The abbey church, originally a Romanesque basilica, was rebuilt in the High Baroque style between 1729 and 1733 and elevated to a minor basilica in 1984. It features an early Baroque high altar, a pulpit by Andreas Kölle, and a Baroque choir organ.

• Klamm Castle (Castle, approx. 3481 m away)
• Freundsheim Manor (Manor house and estate, approx. 3912 m away)
• Schneggenhausen Manor (Manor house and estate, approx. 4797 m away)
• Sankt Petersberg Castle (Castle, approx. 6213 m away)