Monasteries in Switzerland
Gottstatt Monastery
Gottstatt Monastery was established in 1255 by Count Rudolf I von Neuchâtel-Nidau. A previous attempt to establish a monastery on the site in 1247 there had been unsuccessful. The monastery church was built in 1300 and was the burial church for the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. After their line became extinct in 1375, the monastery was inherited by the Counts of Kyburg-Burgdorf until it was acquired by Bern in 1388. Docume ...
Founded: 1255 |
Location:
Orpund, Switzerland
Claro Abbey
Claro abbey was founded in 1490 on the initiative of Scolastica de Vincemalis, a Benedictine religious of Milan who on 13 May 1490 became the establishment's first abbess. The monastery grew rapidly, and by 1516 was home to 16 nuns. In 1559, the religious were charged by decree of Pope Paul IV to relaunch and supervise Seedorf Abbey in the Canton of Uri. Intended for the education of girls, the buildings were enlar ...
Founded: 1490 |
Location:
Claro, Switzerland
Churwalden Abbey
Churwalden Abbey is a former Premonstratensian abbey, abandoned after the Protestant Reformation and was formally dissolved in 1803/07. The abbey was founded under a provost around 1150 or 1164 by the Freiherr von Vaz. The abbey church of Saint Mary already stood on the site and was first mentioned in 1149 as S. Maria in silva Augeria. The vogt over the abbey lived in the nearby Strassberg Castle. Soon after its founding ...
Founded: c. 1150 |
Location:
Churwalden, Switzerland
Erlach Abbey
Erlach Abbey also known as St. Johannsen Abbey, was founded between 1093 and 1103 by Kuno, Count of Fenis and Bishop of Lausanne, on land that was then an island in the river Thielle. After Kuno's death, the abbey church was completed by his brother, Burchard, bishop of Basel. The new monastery was settled by monks from Saint Blaise Abbey. The Vogtei, initially the property of the Counts of Fenis, passed from them to ...
Founded: 1093-1103 |
Location:
Gals, Switzerland
Cazis Abbey
Cazis monastery was founded at the beginning of the 8th century by the Bishop Viktor II of Chur. In 1156 it was converted to the Augustian rule. In 1526, after the Reformation, the monastery was dissolved. In 1647 the monastery was rebuilt by Bishop Johann VI as a Dominican interior priory, but in 1768 destroyed by fire. In 1855 a girls" school and in 1955 a housekeeping school was founded.
Founded: 8th century AD |
Location:
Cazis, Switzerland
Eschenbach Abbey
Eschenbach Abbey was founded as a nunnery in 1285 and was moved to the current site in 1309. In 1588 the nuns joined to the Cistercian Order. The guest house was built in 1612 and new monastery church in 1625. The new neo-Baroque monastery church was built and consecrated in 1910. The famous sundial, largest of its kind in Switzerland, was built in 1683.
Founded: 1309 |
Location:
Eschenbach, Switzerland
Wurmsbach Abbey
Wurmsbach Abbey is a monastery of Cistercian nuns located in Bollingen, a locality of Rapperswil-Jona. Count Rudolf of Rapperswil gave his castle of Wurmsbach together with a considerable area of land in 1259 for the foundation of a religious house and the abbey was established. It was initially a dependency of the Cistercian monks of Abbey of St. Urban in Wettingen. The abbey church was dedicated in 1281. ...
Founded: 1281 |
Location:
Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland
Schänis Abbey
Schänis Abbey was founded in the 9th century. According to the report of a monk from Reichenau Abbey the founder was believed to be Count Hunfried of Chur-Rhaetia, who was said to have promised Charlemagne to make the foundation for the worthy safekeeping of a precious reliquary cross containing a fragments of the True Cross, as well as an onyx vessel containing some of the Blood of Christ. Such evidence as is ...
Founded: 9th century AD |
Location:
Schänis, Switzerland