Metten Abbey

Metten Abbey, founded around 766 during the Carolingian era, is one of Bavaria's oldest monasteries, set in the Danube valley near Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria. When secularisation dissolved the monastery in 1803 it faced demolition, but in 1830 it became the first Bavarian monastery to be revived — and from Metten the renewal of Benedictine monastic life spread across Bavaria and eventually to the United States, where monks from Metten established new communities. The baroque monastic complex is renowned for its library hall, whose ceiling frescoes, ornate stucco work, and gilded shelving house thousands of manuscripts and early printed books. The abbey remains an active Benedictine community today, running a Gymnasium alongside it; guided tours open the library, church, and cloister garden to visitors.