Church · Old Town

Niedernburg Abbey

Niedernburg Abbey in the south of the old town, near the bank of the Inn, is among the oldest religious foundations in Bavaria, with origins reaching back to the 8th century. Benedictine nuns lived and worked here for more than a thousand years; for a time the venerable institution was a free imperial collegiate house for noblewomen and wielded far-reaching influence in the region.

Niedernburg gained particular fame as the final resting place of Blessed Gisela of Bavaria, the first Queen of Hungary and wife of Saint Stephen, the founder of the Hungarian kingdom. After the death of her husband she withdrew to Passau and became abbess of the convent. Her simple tomb in the abbey church remains a place of pilgrimage, especially for Hungarians, and a living symbol of the centuries-old bond between Passau and Hungary — fittingly, the city maintains close ties with Hungary to this day.

The Romanesque-Gothic abbey church, with its quiet courtyards and cloisters, offers a contemplative counterpoint to the Baroque bustle of the upper old town. Anyone strolling through the calm lanes around Niedernburg dives into the medieval layer of Passau that lives on beneath the city's Baroque splendour.