Explore Religious Heritage Across Europe

Walsrode Monastery is the oldest of the Lüneburg monasteries, founded before 986. The life-size figure of the founder, Count Wale, dating from around 1300, is in the chapel, in which magnificent stained glass windows from the end of the 15th century have been preserved above the altar.

It is a women's monastery dating back to the 13th century. It was part of an old castle built on a rocky cliff overlooking the Drau River.

Wienhausen Abbey was founded around 1230, but the oldest preserved building of the monastery is the All Saints' Chapel, built around 1290. The small, almost square building has only a single Gothic cross-wheel vault inside. The wall and vault paintings date from the time of its construction.

Xenophontos Monastery is one of the 20 self-governing Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos. It is ranked sixteenth in the Athonite, the hierarchical order of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos.

Xeropotamou Monastery is one of the 20 self-governing Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos. It is ranked eighth in the Athonite, the hierarchical order of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos.

The Yelets Assumption Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest monasteries in Ukraine, founded in 1060 by Prince Sviatoslav II of Kiev. It was destroyed in 1239 during the Mongol invasion. In 1623 it was restored under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and handed over to the Greek Catholic Church. In 1649 it was taken over by the Orthodox and was completely rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style between 1669 and 1688.

Zehdenick Monastery was a convent for Cistercian nuns founded around 1250. After almost 300 years, it was converted into a Protestant convent in 1541. The buildings were destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, except for some vestiges. The preserved buildings today house church and cultural institutions.

This monastery was founded in the early 13th century by the first king of Serbia, Stefan the First-Crowned. The church of the monastery became the coronational church for Serbian monarchs. The monastery was constructed in the Rascian architectural style and is considered an important cultural heritage site by Serbia.

Žiče Charterhouse is a former monastery of the Carthusian Order founded around 1160. It is the nineteenth charterhouse built in Europe, the first built outside the original Romanesque region of France and Italy.

The former Cistercian monastery of Zinna was founded in 1170 by the Archbishop of Magdeburg. The oldest building in the complex is the late Romanesque fieldstone church, which was begun in the 12th century. In 1553, the last abbot left the monastery. The enclosure was largely demolished in the 18th century and the monastery area to the south was covered with modern buildings. In 1492, the first printed book in the area, a Marian psalm, was created in the monastery.