Loccum Abbey stands in Rehburg-Loccum, near Lake Steinhude in Lower Saxony. Count Wilbrand of Hallermund founded it, and Cistercian monks from Volkenroda Abbey settled here in 1163 under the first abbot, Ekkehard. The monks reportedly endured hardship before they cultivated the land. The buildings are late Romanesque and extremely well preserved.
The abbey church of Saints Mary and George was completed around 1250 and is now the parish church of St. George. The complex also includes a cloister, a chapter house, a sacristy, a dormitory, a refectory, a library and a wing for lay brothers.
It became an imperial abbey under the protection of the Pope and the Emperor, and turned Lutheran in the sixteenth century. By 1700 the abbot was permitted to marry. Since 1891 it has run a Protestant seminary and academy. A community of four to eight members keeps the abbot's title.
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