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Bebenhausen

Bebenhausen - Abbaye Today the monastery and castle of Bebenhausen make an impressive and authentic appearance in the idyllic landscape of the Schönbuch. The once Premonstratensian monastery was founded around the year 1184 by the Count Palatine Rudolf of Tübingen. Only a few years later the monastery was taken over by Cistercian monks. During the 13th and 14th century a spacious monastery complex with numerous buildings for crafts and trades developed and a cultural landscape grew which was shaped by monastic requirements. The monks' summer refectory - a double-aisled, light-suffused hall with a fan vault - represents an exceptional example of the gothic architecture of southwestern Germany. After the reformation, Duke Christoph of Württemberg had a protestant school set up in the monastery in 1560. During the 19th century the site was used as a hunting castle by the kings of Württemberg. The last royal couple of Württemberg, Wilhelm II. and Charlotte, used the castle of Bebenhausen as a life estate after Wilhelm's abdication in 1918. 1946-1952 the monastery figured as conference venue of the federal state parliament of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.

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