Beuron Archabbey is a major house of the Benedictine Order. It was founded in 1863 by the brothers Maurus and Placidus Wolter, in buildings which until 1802 had housed an Augustinian monastery. Between 1875 and 1887 because of political conditions during the 'Kulturkampf' the monks had to leave the abbey, but used the opportunity to found new communities elsewhere, which afterwards joined together under the leadership of Beuron as the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Beuron Art School, with its emphasis on early Christian and Byzantine art, was influential on religious art of the period. One of the biggest exhibits of this type of art in the United States is at Conception Abbey in Missouri which was founded on principles established by Beuron.
The abbey continues to be a centre of study. The library is the largest monastic library in Germany, with over 400,000 books. Since 1884 the abbey has published the Missale Romanum, a lay missal originally produced by Father Anselm Schott of Beuron. The abbey also houses the Vetus-Latina-Institut (Ancient Latin Institute), which has for its purpose the collection and publication of all extant old Latin translations of the Bible.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.