Buchau Abbey

Imperial Abbey of Buchau on the Federsee Reichsstift Buchau am Federsee
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
← 1347–1803 →
Capital	Buchau Abbey
Government	Theocracy
Historical era	Early modern period
- Founded	770
- Raised to princely status,     gained Imp. immediacy	1347
- Converted to secular     foundation	1415
- Gained sovereignty     over Straßberg	1625
- Mediatised to     Thurn und Taxis	1803
- Ceded to Württemberg	1806
Today part of	Germany

Buchau Abbey or the Imperial Abbey of Buchau (German: 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 gained Imperial immediacy (German: reichsunmittelbarkeit) 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 the kingdom of Württemberg as early as 1806. The lordship of Strassberg however fell into the hands of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

The abbey church of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, 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

• (German) Map of Swabia, 1789
• (German) Das (freiweltliche) Damenstift Buchau am Federsee at Google Books, by Bernhard Theil, 1994. ISBN 978-3-110-14214-3