Muri-Gries Church and Monastery

In 1163 an Augustinian monastery was founded in today's Don Bosco district of Bolzano. When this convent fell victim to the floods of the Isarco river in 1406, the Habsburg Duke Leopold gave the Augustinian canons the late medieval castle of the Counts of Tyrol in today's district of Gries. That this is a castle can still be recognised today by the ring wall, the palas and the towers. Like most monasteries, the Augustinian monastery was dissolved in 1807 after Tyrol had come to Bavaria.

When all monasteries were dissolved also in Switzerland in 1841, the Benedictine monks from Muri in Aargau found a new home in the monastery complex in Bolzano: today's Benedictine Abbey of Muri-Gries was established. Today the monastery is best known for the beautiful collection of Nativity scenes, which is open to the public. The baroque St. Augustine Collegiate Church, on the other hand, dates back to 1788, but a church was already standing here in 1416. Numerous frescoes and seven altarpieces by Martin Knoller (1725 - 1804) decorate the interior. He counts among the best fresco painters of his time in southern Germany and Austria. By the way: The bell of the Muri-Gries Church, the Augustine Bell or Emperor's Bell, is with over 5 tons and a diameter of 201 cm the second largest church bell of South Tyrol and also one of the heaviest!