Schloss Himmelberg

Schloss Himmelberg stands in the rolling hills of Lower Bavaria near the Benedictine abbey of St Michael in Metten. Built in 1757 as a summer residence for the abbot, it replaced an older summer house on the same site. The two-storey building is protected as a historic monument and belongs to the municipality of Offenberg. Its east wing houses a two-storey chapel, while the west wing contains a large hall and a cabinet above the ground-floor service rooms.

The chapel is a fine example of Rococo art, with an altar carved by Joseph Deutschmann of Passau and paintings by Martin Speer from Regensburg. Above the high altar hangs a chronogram dated 1758. The hall’s ceiling is richly decorated with Rococo stucco by a member of the Modler family, showing Saint Benedict receiving bread from Romanus. After the abbey’s secularisation in 1803 the building passed through several hands before being restored in the 1980s.

Visitors find the small chapel with its pilasters and barrel vaults, and the grand hall with its allegorical ceiling and Rococo stove. The restored building now hosts concerts as part of the Metten Abbey series. A tented roof with a small bell tower crowns the ensemble, while the chapel’s front is marked by two blind niches where windows once were. The grounds around the castle offer quiet walks through the surrounding countryside.