Visit Heliger Berg

Visit Heliger Berg. Escape from the worldly at the Holy Mountain of Beer, Heliger Berg (Holy Mountain) & its millennium-old Benedictine Monastery of Andechs. The scenic Abbey rises above the picturesque Ammersee (Lake Ammer) 40 km south-west of the city of Munich (50 minutes with the S-Bahn S5 (suburban train) from the Central Station –Hauptbahnhof in Munich to Herrsching). After you reach Herrsching you just follow the signs for Andechs & walk uphill through a lovely route in the forest for about an hour. (If you don’t have the luxury of a rental car).

The story of the Monastery of Andechs starts when the founder of the House of Andechs brought back from the Holy Land in the 10th century what he claimed were twigs from the crown of thorns of Jesus. Soon after people started making pilgrimages to his castle on the present site of the Benedictine Abbey.

The Abbey was built long after the last member of the line of Andechs had died, in 1450, on the site of the old castle. Five years later the first brewery was already producing the first beers. In 1675 a Gothic church that was later adorned with rich rococo & baroque artworks took the place of an older one destroyed by lightning in 1669.

The Composer Carl Orff (1895 – 1982) immortalized by his famous work Carmina Burana is buried in the church and his works come alive each year at the Andechs Orff Festival. Today the Monastery is mostly famous for its high-quality beers most of all the Andechser Doppelbock (double bock), which is a dark and strong beer. Beer tasting is offered for groups after a brewery tour in the Bräustüberl, the traditional Bavarian pub, and for individual travelers in the monastery restaurant Klostergasthof, where beer can be enjoyed together with traditional Bavarian dishes.

This brewery is one of the few that is still monastic owned and at the same time has also evolved into a large and very modern brewery. The brewery, which also includes a schnapps and brandy distillery, along with the beer garden and restaurant actually provides the funding for the monastery. The monks breed their own livestock and make their own cheese, which is served in the restaurant and beer garden.