Monastery Garden of the Benedictine Abbey St. Mauritius

The Benedictine Abbey of St. Mauritius in Tholey is said to be Germany%u2019s oldest monastery. Findings of a Roman public bath date back to the 3rd century AD. It was on this site that the Franconian deacon Grimo-Adalgisel had a church compound built in the 7th century, which he assigned to the Bishop of Verdun in the year 634. Around 750, a rectangular chancel was added. It is around this same time that the Benedictine monastery life is supposed to have begun in Tholey. The construction of the early Gothic abbey church began in 1260. The portal, the impressive West tower, and some of the clerestories were preserved from the preceding Roman edifice. The new construction was finished in 1302 and, to the present day, it still serves as an abbey and a pilgrimage church. During the Thirty Year%u2019s War (1618 %u2013 1648), the abbey was ravaged by fire and pillage. In 1487, the abbey joined the Bursfelde Congregation and experienced its golden age, until it fell victim again to pillaging and plundering, in the year 1794, through French revolutionary troops. The abbey was closed and auctioned off in 1798. In 1806, a citizen of Tholey acquired the buildings and bestowed them as a gift upon the community. Since then, the buildings are being used as a parish church and a rectory.

On 08 December 1949, the abbey church was re-erected on its old foundations under Pope Pius XII and repopulated.

Sites of particular interest are the baroque Oberlinger organ with 43 registers and the baroque choir stalls which date back to the year 1704.