Deutz Abbey was a house of the Benedictine Order located at Deutz, now part of Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 as Köln-Deutz, North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

It was founded in 1003 on the site of a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 fort by the future Saint Heribert

Heribert of Cologne

Saint Heribert was Archbishop of Cologne and Chancellor of Emperor Otto III, and was canonized c. 1074.-Life:He was born in Worms, the son of Hugo, count of Worms. He was educated in the school of Worms Cathedral and at the Benedictine Gorze Abbey in Lorraine...

, Archbishop of Cologne

Archbishopric of Cologne

The Electorate of Cologne was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire and existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of the temporal possessions of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne . It was ruled by the Archbishop in his function as prince-elector of...

, close adviser of Emperor Otto III

Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...

. Heribert died in 1021 and was buried in the Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 church he had had built here.

The theologian Rupert of Deutz

Rupert of Deutz

Rupert of Deutz was an influential Benedictine theologian, exegete and writer on liturgical and musical topics.He was from Liège, and late in life became abbot of Deutz Abbey...

 was abbot during the 1120s.

The abbey had extensive properties, but its strategic position by the Rhine exposed it to involvement in fighting, and it was destroyed in the 14th century and again in the 16th. It was dissolved during the secularisation

German Mediatisation

The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

 of the Napoleonic era

Napoleonic Era

The Napoleonic Era is a period in the history of France and Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly, the second being the Legislative Assembly, and the third being the Directory...

, but became parish church again in 1804. In World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 it was heavily damaged and only ground floor and remnants of the Romanesque cellar were preserved. Reconstruction happened in the 1970s. Today the abbey is hosting a senior residence of Caritas

Caritas (charity)

Caritas Internationalis is a confederate of 164 Roman Catholic relief, development and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide....

. Notable are the mural paintings of artist Werner Weber

Werner Weber

Werner Weber is a Swiss sprint canoer who competed in the early 1960s. At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, he was eliminated in the repechages of the K-1 4 x 500 m event.-References:*...

.

Alt St. Heribert has been taken over from Neu St. Heribert, which is hosting the shrine of Heribert of Cologne

Heribert of Cologne

Saint Heribert was Archbishop of Cologne and Chancellor of Emperor Otto III, and was canonized c. 1074.-Life:He was born in Worms, the son of Hugo, count of Worms. He was educated in the school of Worms Cathedral and at the Benedictine Gorze Abbey in Lorraine...

 since then. The old abbey church is now used by the greek-orthodox

Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...

parish of Cologne.