Gutenzell Abbey

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Gutenzell Abbey (Kloster or Reichsabtei Gutenzell) was a Cistercian nunnery in Gutenzell in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

It was founded in 1237, on the site of an earlier foundation of which nothing is known.

The village of Gutenzell formed round the nunnery from the 15th century onwards. In 1803 the abbey was dissolved during secularisation and its assets transferred first to the Counts of Toerring, and then in 1806 to the Kingdom of Württemberg. The premises were almost entirely demolished in 1864.

The abbey church, dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian, became the parish church. It is a medieval structure re-worked in the Baroque style. The last major refurbishment was carried out in 1755-56 by the Wessobrunn stuccoist Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer the Elder, possibly to plans by Dominikus Zimmermann, whose daughter Maria Alexandra was prioress at the time (she later became abbess from 1759 to 1776). The frescoes are by Johann Georg Dieffenbrunner. The chancel (1756) is by Stephan Luidl, who also created the high altar (1762), possibly also to designs by Dominikus Zimmermann.