Muri Gries Abbey

The Gries Square is flanked on the right by the massive architectural complex of the Abbazia dei Benedettini di Muri-Gries (abbey).

The monastery, first inhabited by Augustinian monks (1406), was pillaged by insurgent peasants in 1525 and was devastated during the Napoleonic wars.

Suppressed in 1807 by the Bavarian government, it was given to the Benedictine priests of Muri (Switzerland) by the Austrian emperor in 1845.

The oldest part is represented by the castle built in the twelfth century by the counts Morit-Greifenstein, whose keep has now become the church's bell tower. It houses the heaviest bell of South Tyrol (5026 kg).

The Chiesa Abbaziale di Sant'Agostino (Church of Saint Augustine) was built in 1769 - 1771 in Baroque style. The interior vaults of the nave, the cupola and also the seven altar-pieces are richly decorated with frescoes by the noted Tyrolean painter Martin Knoller.