Irsee Abbey

Imperial Abbey of Irsee Reichsabtei Irsee
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
← 1694–1802 →
Coat of arms
Irsee Abbey church
Capital		Irsee Abbey
Government		Elective principality
Historical era		Middle Ages
-	Founded by Henry,     Margrave of Ronsberg	1186
-	Refounded after     near-collapse	1373 1694
-	Looted in Peasants' War	1525
-	Looted in Thirty Years' War	mid-17th century
-	Granted Imperial immediacy	1694
-	Mediæval buildings     collapsed	1699–1704
-	Secularised to Bavaria	1802
Today part of		Germany

Irsee Abbey (German: Reichsabtei Irsee) is a former Benedictine abbey located at Irsee near Kaufbeuren in Bavaria. It is now a conference and training centre for Bavarian Swabia.

From the late 17th century onward, Irsee Abbey was one of the 40-odd self-ruling imperial abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire and, as such, was a virtually independent state. At the time of its dissolution in 1802, the abbey covered some 112 square kilometers and had 3200-4200 subjects.^[1]

History

Abbey

The monastery, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was founded in 1186 by Henry, Margrave of Ronsberg, to house a community that had grown up around a local hermit. It came close to collapse in the 14th century, when the community was reduced to a single monk, and was saved only by the intervention in 1373 of Anna von Ellerbach, the second founder, sister of the Bishop of Augsburg, and her appointee, abbot Conrad III, known for his extreme frugality. After severe losses during both the German Peasants' War in 1525 and the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, including on both occasions the destruction of the library and on the second occasion of the archives, the abbey was finally able to put itself back on a stable footing in the later 17th century, and at length in 1694 was granted Imperial immediacy (German: Reichsunmittelbarkeit), becoming an Imperial abbey (German: Reichsabtei).

The abbey lost its independence and the monastery itself was dissolved in the secularisation of 1802 when it became a part of Bavaria. The greater part of the library was moved to Metten Abbey.

In 1812 accommodation for the parish priest and local officials was set up in the monastery buildings.

Hospital

From 1849 the premises were used as an asylum and hospital for the mentally ill. Between 1939 and 1945 more than 2,000 patients, both adults and children, were transported by the then regime from Irsee and Kaufbeuren to death camps.

Conference centre

In 1972 the hospital was wound up. The local authority of the district of Schwaben began the restoration of the buildings in 1974, which opened as the Schwäbische Tagungs- und Bildungszentrum Kloster Irsee ("Kloster Irsee Swabian Conference and Training Centre") in 1984.

References

External links

Media related to Irsee: Exterior and interior at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Irsee: Pulpit at Wikimedia Commons

• (German) Kloster Irsee Training Centre
• (German) Irsee Abbey in the Abbeys in Bavaria database

Images

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  Irsee Abbey

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  Nave

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  Main altar

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  Decorations in front of the Main altar

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  Statue of Saint Roch

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  Decoration on the vault

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  Frescos on the vault

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  Pulpit in the shape of a ship

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  Decorations on the pulpit

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  Decorations on the sounding board above the pulpit

v t e Swabian Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire Ecclesiastical Augsburg Constance Ellwangen Kempten Abbey Lindau Secular Baden Buchau Heiligenberg Hohenzollern-Hechingen Klettgau Liechtenstein Tengen Waldburg Scheer Trauchburg Waldsee Wolfegg Wurzach Zeil Württemberg Prelates Baindt Buchau Elchingen Gengenbach Gutenzell Heggbach Irsee Kaisheim Mainau Marchtal Neresheim Ochsenhausen Petershausen Roggenburg Rot Rottenmünster Salmanweiler St. George's in Isny Schussenried Söflingen Ursberg Weingarten Weißenau Wettenhausen Zwiefalten Counts Lords Altshausen Baar Bondorf Eberstein Eglingen Eglofs Fugger Jakob Johann Markus Gundelfingen Gutenstein Hausen Heiligenberg Hohenems Hohengeroldseck Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Justingen Kinzigerthal Königsegg and Aulendorf Lustenau Meßkirch Mindelheim / Schwabegg Oberdischingen Öttingen Baldern Öttingen Wallerstein Rechberg Rothenfels and Stauffen Stühlingen and Hohenhöwen Tettnang / Langenargen Thannhausen Wiesensteig Cities Aalen Augsburg Biberach Bopfingen Buchau Buchhorn Dinkelsbühl Eßlingen Gengenbach Giengen Heilbronn Isny Kaufbeuren Kempten Leutkirch Lindau Memmingen Nördlingen Offenburg Pfullendorf Ravensburg Reutlingen Rottweil Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Hall Überlingen Ulm Wangen Weil Wimpfen Zell Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish     ·     Unencircled territories

v t e  Holy Roman Empire — Imperial abbeys of the Swabian College Imperial abbeys and colleges (Reichsabteien, Reichsklöster und Reichsstifte) Baindt Comburg Disentis Elchingen Frauenchiemsee Fraumünster Fürstenfeld Gengenbach Göss Gutenzell Heggbach Helmarshausen Herrenalb Irsee Kaisheim† Lindau Lorsch Marchtal Marmoutier Maulbronn Mönchrot Mondsee Murbach* Neresheim Ochsenhausen Ottobeuren Petershausen Prüfening Reichenau Roggenburg Rottenmünster St. Gall's* St. George's in Isny Salem Schänis Schussenried Schuttern Söflingen Ursberg Waldsassen Weingarten Weissenau Wettenhausen Imperial charterhouse (Reichskartause) Buxheim† * Also a Prince of the Empire † Also in Rhenish College

Coordinates: 47°54′35″N 10°34′30″E / 47.90972°N 10.57500°E / 47.90972; 10.57500