Catholic monastery in Germany to open escape room for visitors
The Norbertines of Roggenburg have devised a way to attract visitors as the abbey prepares to celebrate its 900th anniversary.
The Catholic Roggenburg Abbey, located near the German city of Ulm, plans to open a themed escape room on January 2, 2026. This was reported by the website kath.ch.
According to the concept, participants become monks in the year 1632 who have 60 minutes to find the monastery’s hidden treasure in order to save the abbey from Swedish troops.
The idea was supported by one of the abbey’s superiors, Kilian Neubert, who said that the goal of the project is to attract young people and introduce them to the monastery’s history in an unconventional format.
He noted that the initiative is part of the preparations for the 900th anniversary of Roggenburg Abbey, which will be marked in 2026. According to him, monks from the abbey and parishioners have been involved in creating the escape room, spending a year developing historical riddles and designing the underground space.
Roggenburg Abbey was founded in 1126 and was dissolved during the period of secularization in 1802. The monastic tradition was revived in 1982. Today, ten Premonstratensian (Norbertine) canons live at Roggenburg.
Local media note that such games in monasteries are virtually nonexistent.
“Indeed, an internet search will turn up escape rooms designed in a monastic style, including those located in former monastic complexes. However, it appears that nothing quite like what is planned in Roggenburg exists anywhere else in Germany,” kath.ch writes.
As previously reported by the UOJ, a woman performed a pole dance inside a Lutheran church in Germany.
