Intimate places for contemplation and thought

Take just a few steps through the forest behind the monastery church and you will find yourself at another place with another great role model.

The grotto that has been set up here is reminiscent of the Grotto of Lourdes in southwest France, near which the Mother of God appeared to Bernadette Soubirous several times.

Lourdes later became an important place of pilgrimage after some miraculous healings and Bernadette was canonised.

History

Kloster Holzen

The Monastry church in Holzen

God's house. Jewel. Landmark

Set on the solid foundations of the Karlsberg mountain you will find the Church of St. John the Baptist. The tower reaches high up towards the sky and offers views across the River Schmutter and across the Lech Valley. The interior of the monastery, which was consecrated in 1710, impresses with its detailed stucco, ceiling frescoes, reliquary altars and a Baroque high altar.

The centre of the stunningly decorated ceiling forms a large painting. It depicts the globe and on it the Holzen monastery church. Above it is the firmament. Kloster Holzen – between heaven and earth! This work of art depicts the natural interaction between spiritual and worldly things that influence life at Kloster Holzen now, and as it did then

The chapel on the south side of the monastery complex in modeled on the "Santa Casa" church in Loreto. The "Holy House", in which, according to legend, Mary grew up and where the angel announced to her that she would give birth to Jesus, was taken from Nazareth to Italy in the 13th century. "Santa Casa" helped the little town just south of Ascona to become the second most important place of pilgrimage in Italy.

At the front of the Holzen's Loreto Chapel is a small room with altar for contemplation. Behind it a staircase awaits visitors. In former times, the nuns climbed these stairs on their knees in prayer and remembrance of the sufferings of Christ.