Zwiefalten Abbey

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Zwiefalten, 1826

Zwiefalten Abbey (in German Kloster Zwiefalten, Abtei Zwiefalten or after 1750, Reichsabtei Zwiefalten) was a Benedictine monastery situated at Zwiefalten near Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.

[edit] History

High altar in Zwiefalten Abbey

The monastery was founded in 1089 at the time of the Investiture Controversy by Counts Gero and Kuno of Achalm, advised by Bishop Adalbero of Würzburg and Abbot William of Hirsau. The first monks were also from Hirsau Abbey, home of the Hirsau Reforms (under the influence of the Cluniac reforms), which strongly influenced the new foundation.

Although Pope Urban VI granted special privileges to it, Zwiefalten Abbey was neverthless the private monastery of the Counts of Achalm, later succeeded by the Counts of Württemberg.

The abbey was plundered in 1525 during the Peasants' War.

The present buildings were constructed in German Baroque style from 1739–1747 under the direction of Johann Michael Fischer (1692–1766) of Munich, who began overseeing the work in 1741. The interior, considered a model of Baroque design, is filled with ornate chapels and gilded balustrades, dominated by the high altar, which combines a Gothic-era statue of Mary from 1430 with Baroque additions (ca. 1750) by Johann Joseph Christian (1706–1777). The elaborate frescoes are by Franz Joseph Spiegler (1691–1757).^[1]

In 1750 the abbey was granted the status of "Reichsabtei", which meant that it had the status of an independent power subject only to the Imperial Crown and was free of the rule of Württemberg.

On 25 November 1802, however, it was secularized and dissolved and became a lunatic asylum and later psychiatric hospital, which it is today, as well as the site of the Württemberg Psychiatry Museum.