Corvey Abbey in Höxter in Germany was one of the Imperial abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire from the 844 until 1792. It was raised to the status of a prince-bishopric. This was secularized in 1803 and became part of the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda, under the rule of the future King William I of the Netherlands. In 1807, it fell under the Kingdom of Westphalia. In 1815, it fell to Prussia and in 1820 it was awarded to Victor Amadeus, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg as compensation. In 1834, the property fell to Victor of Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst and he was later granted the title Duke of Ratibor and Prince of Corvey.
Several of the family members are buried there, reportedly in the so-called Friedgarten but I found no mention of it anywhere on the site.
One of the Princesses buried there is Princess Agatha of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst who married Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia in 1910.
Corbey Abbey was absolutely gorgeous but I had some issues during my visit. The first problem appeared as I went to pay for my ticket. Despite having a card reader, the woman behind the register immediately barked at me that Dutch cards didn’t work. She didn’t even want to try it or any other card. (She apparently recognised it as a Dutch card by the orange back) Luckily I had all of 10 euro in my wallet so at least I could get in, but forget about getting a coffee or buying something in the gift shop. The gift shop didn’t even have a machine to begin with.
As you can see above, they have many amazing portraits but….you have to guess who they are. Very little information is actually available and if it is, it’s all in German. Even the little booklet on the Princely family.
Weirdly enough, the church bit on the side also required an additional entrance fee. What was that all about?
Oh dear, that does not sound like a nice place to visit at all. So in the future when I travel to Europe this will not be on my list of places to visit. Sorry that you could not get into the church.