Monasteries founded under Tassilo III

Coloniser, duke and finally monk

Unknown founders establish the Benedictine monastery of Altmünster between 748 and 777 AD. However, the founding of this monastery, as well as that of Kremsmünster in around 777, is attributed to the Bavarian Duke Tassilo III, since after the conquests of the Hungarians in around 950, there are no other monasteries to be found bearing the name "Münster". The founding of Altmünster therefore would fit exactly within this time frame.

This is because the Bavarian occupation or rather colonisation of the densely wooded Traungau and its neighbouring areas, which were mainly populated by Slavs, is closely linked to the founding of the monasteries. It is Slavs that clear the timber in the ducal forests of Dietach, Sierning and Eberstalzell. Tassilo III hands over these new estates to Kremsmünster Abbey as a dotation, i.e. an endowment with income and goods.

At the same time, St. Wolfgang, Stadl Paura and probably Altmünster are founded too. All these monasteries serve to consolidate the Bavarian internal colonisation and push back the Slavic settlement area.

At the time of the founding of the monasteries, Tassilo III is expanding his territorial power further eastwards. He subjugates Carantania, a Slavic principality, today the region of Carinthia, and rises to become the most powerful duke of the Agilolfings in the 6th century.

For economic and political reasons, Tassilo III deepens his friendship with the Lombards, who are ruling over the territory of today's northern Italy. His goal is to achieve Bavarian independence from Charlemagne's empire through alliances.

But then everything goes wrong. When his cousin, Charlemagne, conquers the Lombard Kingdom, Tassilo loses his closest allies. Of course, this alliance contradicts the imperial interests of Charlemagne, and Tassilo III is demoted from duke to liege.

The pretext for this is an alleged alliance between Tassilo and the Avars 20 years earlier. Emperor Charlemagne had Tassilo III sentenced to death, fearing that he might stab him in the back in his campaign against the Avars. However, there is no evidence of an alliance between the Avars and the Duchy of Bavaria.

But Charlemagne does not have his cousin executed. Tassilo is pardoned on condition that none of his children inherit his territories. He ends his life as a monk in the Benedictine abbey of Jumièges in France.

To this day, it is not certain where and when Tassilo III, the most powerful Bavarian duke, died. Coloniser, duke and finally monk. This information can be found in the medieval annals of Kremsmünster Abbey, which he founded, as he did the abbeys of Mondsee and probably Altmünster. Historians believe that Tassilo III found his final resting place in the Benedictine monastery of Lorsch in southern Hesse, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.

Bavarian Colonisation

Monasteries founded under Tassilo III

Coloniser, duke and finally monk