Marienberg abbey

The abbey, a whitewashed fortress-like building on the right-hand slope of Vinschgau valley above Burgeis, is visible from a long distance. A well-maintained mountain road leads up to the abbey. It is the highest Benedictine monastery in Europe.
Since 2007 the ground floor is occupied by a museum providing an insight into day-to-day life behind monastery walls. Works of art from various periods, as well as texts and films explain the 900-year history in and around Marienberg.
Well worth seeing is the monastery church dating from the late 12th century which is entered through a stone-framed Romanesque portal. The church gained its baroque appearance between 1643 and 1648.
Marienberg originally came into being as an endowment from the noblemen of Tarasp in the 12th century. Later, in the early 17th century, the abbey had its heyday, with more and more monks joining. In 1807 the monastery was closed by the Bavarian government; the monastery, church, archive and library lost valuable assets.
Only 9 years later Emperor Franz I led the reconstruction effort. Between 1946 and 1986 Marienberg also housed a secondary school.
Today the convent has 11 members. The monastery is still widely regarded as an important institution, reflecting the role it played over the centuries as a religious, cultural and economic centre for the inhabitants of the valley.