Mariastein Abbey (Kloster Mariastein) is a Benedictine monastery in Metzerlen-Mariastein in the Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland. Mariastein, after Einsiedeln, is the second most important place of pilgrimage in Switzerland. Over the Chapel of Grace ("Gnadenkapelle") now stands a late Gothic three-aisled basilica. The interior is Baroque and the entrance facade classical. The abbey was secularised twice, in 1792, because of the French Revolution, and in 1874, as a result of the "Kulturkampf", after which the monks were obliged to seek refuge first in France, at Delle, and then, when in 1902 they were expelled as a result of legal changes in France, for a short time at Dürrnberg near Hallein in Austria, and finally in Bregenz, also in Austria. When the monastery at Bregenz was closed down by the Gestapo, the monks returned to Mariastein, where they were granted asylum in 1941. In 1971 the abbey was officially re-established. The abbey has been a member of the Swiss Congregation, now a part of the Benedictine Confederation, since 1647.
