St. Benedikt, Freising

The Benediktuskirche is a Catholic church on the Domberg in Freising. The church is located east of the cathedral and can be reached through the cloister that passes through the back of the Benediktuskirche. The church is separated from the cloister only by iron bars.

Otto of Freising already mentioned the church in his chronicles, according to which it was built by Bishop Korbinian, who established a monastic community there.

Probably around 825, with the introduction of the Regula Benedicti, a first church was built at the Freising cathedral monastery. However, it is unclear whether this already stood on the site of the present church. From the 12th century, the church was venerated as the place of burial of the first Freising bishop Korbinian.

The construction of the present church was initiated in 1347 by Cathedral Provost Otto von Maxlrain. At that time, due to disputes between Louis the Bavarian and the papal curia in Avignon, no bishop could hold on for long. In the course of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the church received a complete stained glass interior and this remained until the 18th century. Of these windows, each of which had been donated by a canon, only the main window in the eastern window opening of the choir exists today. The Gothic church received baroque stucco work by Nikolaus Liechtenfurtner in 1716.

The former high altarpiece from 1665, "Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple" by Christopher Paudiß, is now in the Diocesan Museum. In the northern aisle painting "Beheading of John the Baptist" by Andreas Wolff.

After the monks of the cathedral monastery, the secular priests of the Freising cathedral chapter were also buried in the church and cloister.