Maria Laach Abbey, or Abtei Maria Laach or Kloster Maria Laach, is a Benedictine abbey in northwestern Germany. Picturesquely located on the wooded shores of a crater lake, Maria Laach's abbey church is a beautiful and important example of German Romanesque architecture.
The Abbey of Maria Laach was founded in 1093 by the Count Palatine of the Rhine Heinrich II and his wife Adelheid. They were unable to have children and donated what would have been spent on a dowry on the foundation of a monastery across the lake from their castle.
The foundation was accepted and overseen by the Archbishop of Trier and the first monks came from the monastery of St. Maximin nearTrier. Built on the west side of the lake now known as the Laacher See, the monastery became known as the Abbatia ad Lacum, "Lake Abbey."
