Wittichen Abbey () is a former

Poor Clares The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare (Latin language, Latin: ''Ordo Sanctae Clarae''), originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Or ...

abbey in

Wittichen Wittichen is a village that belongs to Kaltbrunn in the municipality of Schenkenzell in the district of Rottweil in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg. History In 1291, Luitgard, later the founder of the convent of Wittichen Ab ...

in a narrow side valley of the Kleine Kinzig stream near

Schenkenzell Schenkenzell is a village in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and ...

in the upper Kinzig valley in 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 ...

History

The

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...

was founded by Saint

Luitgard of Wittichen Luitgard of Wittichen (, 1291–1348) was a German nun, mystic and founder of a convent. Life and works Luitgard (also Lutgard) of Wittichen was born in 1291 in Schenkenzell in the Black Forest and came from a simple, peasant background. At the ...

in 1324. According to Luitgard, who came from the Schenkenzell village of Kaltbrunn-Vortal, God said to her on the site of the monastery: "Here you are to build me a house!" So she searched for other co-sisters and founded her abbey in the outback of Wittichen with 33 sisters. The abbey found support from counts of Geroldseck as well as Queen Agnes of Hungary. Through her intervention the retreat was recognised as an abbey by

John XXII Pope John XXII (, , ; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death, in December 1334. He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by the Conclave of ...

Present day

The monastery is near the entrance to the small village of Wittichen. The small monastery church has been preserved. It is in the

baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

, and houses Luitgard's grave. A number of the Counts of Urslingen are buried in the nearby cemetery. There are also circular hiking trails, some with information on mining in the Wittichen area.

Sources

* ''Der Landkreis Rottweil'', published by the Landesarchivdirektion Baden-Württemberg, Vo,.2, Ostfildern, 2003, pp. 156f

External links

*
Wittichen Abbey on the Schenkenzell website

{{Coord, 48.33481, N, 8.34690, E, type:landmark_region:DE-BW, display=title Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg Poor Clare monasteries 1320s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1324 establishments in Europe