Ettal Abbey

Ettal Abbey was founded on 28 April 1330, Saint Vitalis of Milan's day, by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in the Graswang valley, in fulfilment of an vow, on his return from his coronation in Rome, on a site of strategic importance on the primary trade route between Italy and Augsburg.

The abbey suffered great damage during the Reformation at the hands of the troops of Maurice of Saxony, but survived the troubles of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).

The subsequent spectacular re-building in the Baroque style, with a double-shelled dome, was to the plans of Enrico Zuccalli, a Swiss-Italian architect working in Munich, who had studied with Bernini.

The decoration was primarily carried out by Josef Schmutzer of the Wessobrunn School of stuccoists and Johann Baptist Straub, who was responsible for the altars and the chancel.

The abbot of Ettal, Joannes Hoeck, made a significant contribution on the role of Patriarchs in Church government at the Second Vatican Council.

In early 2010, ten priests at the Ettal Abbey boarding school were accused of sadistic beatings, molestation, or making sexual advances on boys as well as sadism.

Both the monastery's Abbot Barnabas Bögle and the head of the school Maurus Kraß both resigned in February 2010 after being pressured to do so by Munich Archbishop Reinhard Marx.

[3] The monastery runs a brewery, Benediktiner Weissbräu, a distillery, a bookstore, an art publishing house, a hotel, a cheese factory joint venture, and several smaller companies.