Grafschaft Abbey

Grafschaft Abbey (German: Kloster Grafschaft) is a community of the Sisters of Mercy of Saint Charles Borromeo, formerly a Benedictine monastery, in Schmallenberg-Grafschaft in the Sauerland, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The Benedictine monastery was founded in 1072 on a site at the foot of the Wilzenberg mountain, by Saint Anno, Archbishop of Cologne,[1] whose statue still stands at the west gate.

From 1729 the premises were gradually replaced by completely new buildings in the Baroque style;[2] the rebuild was finished in 1742 and the new abbey church dedicated in 1747.

In 1827 the premises were bought by the Princes von Fürstenberg, but by that time the church was in such a bad condition that it had to be demolished, despite its high architectural quality.

In 1947 the buildings were given to the Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo, who had been expelled from the order's former mother house Trebnitz Abbey, in Silesia.