Huysburg

The Huysburg is a Benedictine monastery on the Huy hill range near Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt. The Romanesque abbey dates from about 1080 and was secularised in 1804. A new Benedictine community was founded in 1972 and has been a priory since 1984. Remains of a Frankish castle from about 790 AD mark the site. Emperor Otto III gave the hill to the Bishops of Halberstadt in 997. The abbey joined the Bursfelde Congregation in 1444 and by the late 15th century housed 31 monks. It survived the Reformation under the Treaty of Westphalia and prospered again after 1648. The abbey was dissolved in 1804 and its estates passed to the Prussian state. A branch seminary operated here from 1952 until 1993. The present Benedictine priory was founded in 1972 by monks from Tyniec Abbey in Kraków. The Romanesque abbey church was consecrated in 1121 and contains the tomb of the first abbot, Blessed Ekkehard. The tomb of Bishop Johannes Braun also lies there. The Huysburg is one of the main pilgrimage sites in the Diocese of Magdeburg. Many Catholics visit each year, especially for the Family Pilgrimage on the first Sunday in September. The priory is now linked to St. Matthias’ Abbey in Trier.