Rottenmünster Abbey, also the Imperial Nunnery of Rottenmünster (), was a

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

abbey located near

Rottweil Rottweil (; Alemannic: ''Rautweil'') is a town in southwest Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Rottweil was a free imperial city for nearly 600 years. Located between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alps, Rottweil has over 25,000 ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. The self-ruling Imperial Abbey was secularized in the course of the

German mediatization German mediatisation (; ) was the major redistribution and reshaping of territorial holdings that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany by means of the subsumption and Secularization (church property), secularisation of a large number of ...

of 1802–1803 and its territory annexed to the

Duchy of Württemberg The Duchy of Württemberg () was a duchy located in the south-western part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a Imperial Estate, state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1495 to 1803. The dukedom's long survival for over three centuries was mainly du ...

. The monastery was closed in 1850. The buildings of the former abbey now house a hospital.

History

In 1221, a branch of a sister community was formed at Hochmauern, south of Rottweil, thus founding the future monastery. On 9 May 1224,

Pope Honorius III Pope Honorius III (c. 1150 – 18 March 1227), born Cencio Savelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 July 1216 to his death. A canon at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, he came to hold a number of importa ...

inducted the monastery into the General Chapter of the Cistercians. The Abbot of

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

, Eberhard von Rohrdorf, appointed the first Abbess, Williburgis. In 1237,

Emperor Frederick II Frederick II (, , , ; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI of the Ho ...

raised Rottenmünster to

imperial immediacy In the Holy Roman Empire, imperial immediacy ( or ) was the status of an individual or a territory which was defined as 'immediate' () to Emperor and Empire () and not to any other intermediate authorities, while one that did not possess that stat ...

and commended the protection of the monastery to the imperial city of Rottweil. Through donations and dowries, the monastery collected land between the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

and

Swabian Alb The Swabian Jura ( , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of Swabia. It is part of th ...

. The lands contained about 3,000 inhabitants and produced an annual income of about 30,000 guilders (in 1803). The Abbess was a member of the Imperial Diet and the Swabian Imperial Circle.Margareta Bull-Reichenmiller: ''Das ehemalige Reichsstift und Zisterziensernonnenkloster Rottenmünster. Studien zur Grundherrschaft, Gerichts- und Landesherrschaft''. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1964Klöster in Baden-Württemberg: Zisterzienserinnenabtei Rottenmünster - Geschichte
/ref>Winfried Hecht: ''Kleine Geschichte der Reichsabtei Rottenmünster''. Neckartal Verlag, Rottweil 2018, After the peak of 100 nuns at the end of the 14th century, the general population settled to between 20 and 30 nuns. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, the monastery was looted by roving troops, and in 1643 the monastery was burned down by troops of the Duke of Württemberg. In 1662, only 14 women under a vow and three lay nuns lived in the monastery. In the 18th century, the number of sisters rose to above 30. As a result of the Final Recess of 1803, the territory of the monastery was

secularized In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

and taken over on 23 November 1802 by Württemberg. Some 24 women under vow, four novices, and 14 lay sisters remained in the monastery. In 1826, the last Abbess Juliana Mayer died. In 1850, the last living sister, Franziska Gaupp, left the monastery. This ended its use as a Cistercian abbey.Winfried Hecht: ''Kleine Geschichte der Reichsabtei Rottenmünster''. Neckartal Verlag, Rottweil 2018,

Hospital

In 1898, a mental health institution was set up in the convent rooms, from which today's Vinzenz von Paul Hospital developed.

Abbesses

*1237 Ida *1290 Adelheid von Grieningen *1328 Katharina von Triberg *1343 Adelheid Diepolt *1351 Anna Boller *1388 Katharina Gieringer *1419 Brigitta Kopp *1436 Elisabeth von Rothenstein * to 1475 Beatrix von Enzberg *1657-87 Ursula Scherlin *1687-1725 Maria Williburg Frey *1796-1803 Maria Juliana Maier

References

External links

Vinzenz von Paul Hospital gGmbH Rottenmünster
13th-century churches in Germany Cistercian nunneries in Germany Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg {{Germany-hist-stub