The island Frauenchiemsee (often called Fraueninsel) is the second largest of the three islands in Chiemsee

Chiemsee

Chiemsee is a freshwater lake in Bavaria, Germany, between Rosenheim, Germany, and Salzburg, Austria. It is often called the Bavarian Sea. The rivers Tiroler Achen and Prien flow into the lake; the river Alz, out of it...

, 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 belongs to the municipality of Chiemsee in Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...

n district of Rosenheim

Rosenheim (district)

Rosenheim is a Kreis in the south of Bavaria, Germany.Neighboring districts are, clockwise from the west, Miesbach, Munich, Ebersberg, Mühldorf, and Traunstein, with the Austrian province Tirol across the southern border....

, which is the smallest municipality in all of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. The 15.5 hectares (38.3 acre) large and car free Fraueninsel houses 300 permanent residents as well as an active Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

. Frauenchiemsee along with its sister island Herreninsel

Herrenchiemsee

Herrenchiemsee is a complex of royal buildings on the Herreninsel, an island in the Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, 60 km south east of Munich. Together with the neighbouring island of Frauenchiemsee and the uninhabited Krautinsel it forms the municipality of Chiemsee...

 is one of the main tourist attractions on the Chiemsee, and is famous for the Kloster Liquor spirit, which is produced by the nuns.
The monastery was founded in 782 by Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, the last of the Agilolfing

Agilolfings

The Agilolfings were a family of either Frankish or Bavarian nobility that ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Merovingian suzerains from about 550 until 788...

 dukes of Bavaria

Duchy of Bavaria

The Duchy of Bavaria was the only one of the stem duchies from the earliest days of East Francia and the Kingdom of Germany to preserve both its name and most of its territorial extent....

. After the destruction of the Hungarian incursions, the monastery's heyday was between the 11th and 15th centuries. The monastery buildings were rebuilt between 1728 and 1732. In the course of the German Mediatisation

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....

 the monastery was secularised

Secularization

Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...

 between 1803 and 1835. King Ludwig I of Bavaria

Ludwig I of Bavaria

Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...

 rebuilt the Benedictine monastery in 1836 under the new requirement that they should pay for the education of "fallen women"; a reform school existed on the site until 1995. the monastery has 30 sisters, the abbess is Johanna Mayer.

The island is accessible by ship year round, usually from Gstadt

Gstadt am Chiemsee

Gstadt am Chiemsee is a civil parish in the rural district of Rosenheim. It is located on lake Chiemsee.-Districts:Gstadt am Chiemsee consists of the districts of* Gollenshausen* Gstadt* Aich* Aiglsbuch* Aisching* Ed* Lienzing* Lienzinger Moos...

, Prien

Prien am Chiemsee

Prien am Chiemsee is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim, in Bavaria, Germany.-Geography:It is situated on the western shore of the Chiemsee lake, 16 km east of Rosenheim.-Famous resident:...

, and Seebruck

Seeon-Seebruck

Seeon-Seebruck is a municipality in the district of Traunstein in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the northern end of lake Chiemsee. It is located near the origin of the river Alz.-Municipal districts:* Seebruck* Seeon* Truchtlaching...

. There are also several boats that can take passengers from Frauenchiemsee to Herreninsel and back. A cenotaph to Alfred Jodl

Alfred Jodl

Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...

, army general and executed war criminal, is located on the island.