The St. George Church of the the Benedictine Monastery of Weltenburg on the Danube breakthrough in Kelheim in Bavaria is one of the most important religious buildings of the Baroque in Europe. The monastery church was built from 1716 to 1718 and decoreted in the aftermath by the Asam brothers in the style of the late Baroque.

A first monastery church of St. George in Weltenburg is supposed having been consecrated already in 700 by Saint Rupert, the “Apostles of Bavaria”. The monastery church was rebuilt in the course of a complete restoration of the monastery in 1714 under Abbot Maurus Bächl.

In 1721 the large ceiling fresco of the church was completed and signed by Cosmas Damian Asam, and the high altar made by his brother Egid Quirin Asam. In 1728 a magnificent Baroque organ with twelve registers, which is still intact, is created by the famous organ builder Johann Konrad Brandenstein from Regensburg.

That monks are brewing beer in Weltenburg, is first documented in the year 1050, why Weltenburg advertises with the label “Oldest monastery brewery in the world”.

Map: Weltenburg Abbey
Map: Weltenburg Abbey