Pfäfers Abbey

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Pfäfers Abbey (Kloster Pfäfers), also known as St. Pirminsberg from its situation on a mountain, was a Benedictine monastery in Pfäfers near Bad Ragaz, Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

It was founded in about 740 at the junction of the Tamina and Rhine valleys and flourished as a religious house and owner of lands and serfs, as well as assuming extraordinary importance as a political and cultural centre of the Chur-Rhaetian region.

In 1483 the abbey territory fell under the "Common Lordship" ("Gemeine Herrschaft") of Sargans of the Seven Ancient Places and thus part of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

In 1665 the medieval abbey was entirely burnt down, and rebuilt closer to the mountain slope, in the present dominant position. The first rooms were ready for occupation in 1674, and the new abbey church was dedicated in 1694.

The abbey, after several years of internal dissension, was dissolved by the cantonal government of St. Gallen in 1838. Since 1847 the buildings have been used, first as an asylum, and more recently, as the St. Pirminsberg psychiatric clinic.

From 1602 until its dissolution the abbey was a member of the Swiss Congregation, now part of the Benedictine Confederation.