Ebrach, Abbey of
EBRACH, ABBEY OF
In Upper Franconia, Diocese of Würzburg, founded in 1127 as a daughterhouse of the Cistercian Abbey of morimond. It flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries with daughterhouses of its own. The abbey had extensive estates in Franconia. It was secularized in 1803 and has been a prison since 1851. The first church was consecrated in 1134. The early Gothic construction (1200–85), with a rectangular apse and a magnificent rose window on the west façade, was sumptuously decorated in early classical style by Abbot Rosshirt (1773–91) employing the services of Materno Bossi, and is today a Catholic parish church. The monk Conrad (d. 1399), a noted theological writer, taught in the abbey's colleges in Prague and Vienna. A long, bitter struggle with the bishops of Würzburg over full exemption ended in failure in 1522. Valuable manuscripts from Ebrach are in Munich, Bamberg, Würzburg, and Wolfenbüttel.
Bibliography: w. wiemer, Die Baugeschichte und Bauhütte der Ebracher Abteikirche (Kallmünz, Ger. 1958). m. hartig, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 3:636. k. lauterer, "Konrad von Ebrach, Lebenslauf und Schrifttum," Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis 17 (1961) 151–214; 18 (1962) 60–120.
[a. schneider]