Benedicte Abbey of Reicheneau

According to the legend of the monastery’s foundation, Saint Pirminius came to Reichenau in 724 with 40 monks to build a chapel on the remote island at the request of the Alemannic Great Sintlas. At that time, the island was still surrounded by the largely pagan Alemanni, which ensured that the Carolingians saw the abbey as an important missionary location. This earned the abbey the favour of the Carolingian rulers in the 8th century and a first period of prosperity. Even Charlemagne visited the monastery in 780 with his wife Hildegard.

As time went on, the monastery grew and several monastic cells were formed on the island. In this way, the Cellae St. Peter and Paul were built at the end of the 8th century and the large Marienmünster at the beginning of the 9th century. In 888, Emperor Charles the Fat was buried here. During this time, the Reichenau Fraternity Book and the world-famous plan of the monastery of St. Gall were drawn up in the scriptoria of Reichenau. At the end of the 9th century, the abbot and Archbishop of Mainz Hatto III also built St. George’s Church, which can still be seen today on the southeast side of the island.

Through the favour of the Ottonian rulers, who granted the monastery far-reaching privileges, the abbey experienced a second period of prosperity in the 10th century. For example, the famous Reichenau writing school was founded, which brought forth important historiographers such as Hermann or Berthold of Reichenau. In addition, the murals in St. George’s Church, which can still be admired today, were painted during this period.

In the following centuries, the spiritual and material decline of the Benedictine abbey finally began. The monastery was no longer able to cope with the social and economic transformations of the High and Late Middle Ages, and so it happened that during the 14th century the entire monastery property was temporarily mortgaged. A few decades later, the monastery, which had only been open to the higher nobility, was also made accessible to the lower nobility.

In the late Middle Ages, the Minster Church was once again extended with a late Gothic choir. In 1540, the abbey finally came to the Bishop of Constance after the abbot Markus von Knöringen renounced his office as prior and Emperor Charles V had signed the monastery over to him as an imperial fiefdom.

After the abbey finally stood up for its independence once again in the 18th century and redesigned the church of St Peter and St Paul in the rococo style, the monks were violently banished from the island in 1757. The monastery was finally dissolved completely in 1803 as a result of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and Napoleon’s enforcement of the principle of secularisation.

In the 19th century, the former monastery buildings were finally extensively restored and made accessible to the railway with the construction of a railway embankment across Lake Constance. The former abbey buildings were largely untouched by major destruction in the course of the Second World War, have been extensively refurbished and can therefore still be seen to a large extent in their historical form today.

In 2000, the monastery island of Reichenau was finally included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. From 2001, Benedictine monks once again settled on the island in the Cella St. Benedikt.

The buildings of the former monastery cells are scattered far and wide on Reichenau Island. Today’s parish church of St. Peter and Paul is in the village of Niederzell, the former monastery church of St. Mary and St. Mark is also located as a parish church in Elber, and the church of St. George is in the south-east of the island near Oberzell. Today’s Benedictine convent is housed in the parish house in Niederzell.

All three former monastery churches can be visited today on guided tours. In addition, the former monastery treasure can be viewed in the Minster Church of St Mary and St Mark. In the REICHENAU MUSEUM, visitors can still get a picture of medieval monastic life and learn about the eventful history of the Benedictine abbey. In addition, services of the Catholic parish of Reichenau are still held in all three churches today.

FLORIAN HARTMANN