Buchau Abbey

Buchau Abbey or the Imperial Abbey of Buchau ( _de. Reichsstift Buchau) was a nunnery, and later collegiate foundation, in the present town of Bad Buchau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

According to its legend, it was founded in about 770 on an island in the Federsee by the Frankish Count Warin and his wife Adelindis (still commemorated in the local "Adelindisfest"). The nunnery was put on a secure financial footing by Louis the Pious, who in 819 granted the nuns property in the Saulgau and in Mengen. In 857, Louis the German declared it a private religious house of the Carolingian Imperial family and appointed as abbess his daughter Irmingard (died 16 July 866).

In the 13th century, it was counted as an Augustinian house, but thereafter was a collegiate foundation of canonesses from noble families in Swabia. In 1347, the establishment became "reichsunmittelbar" and the abbess was raised to the rank of Princess-Abbess.

In 1415, the abbey became a secular foundation. It was able to expand its property to create a small territory. In 1625, the feudal lordship of Strassberg reverted to the abbey.

In the secularisation of 1803, it was dissolved and its assets passed to Thurn and Taxis, from where they were transferred to Württemberg as early as 1806. The lordship of Strassberg however fell into the hands of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

The abbey church of Saints Cornelius and Cyprianus, one of the first neo-classical buildings in southern Germany, still with some late Baroque features, was constructed between 1774 and 1776 by Pierre Michel d'Ixnard as a conversion and refurbishment of a Gothic church. It includes stucco sculptures by Johann Joseph Christian.

External links

* [http://www.hoeckmann.de/deutschland/bwsued.htm Map of Swabia, 1789]