Wittichen Abbey, Schenkenzell, Germany

Wittichen Abbey is a former Poor Clares abbey founded by Saint Luitgard of Wittichen 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 the dukes of Teck and the counts of Geroldseck as well as Queen Agnes of Hungary. Through her intervention the retreat was recognised as an abbey by John XXII. It was in 1540 temporarily closed due to the Reformation and again in the Thirty Years' War (the abbey suffered heavy damages in 1640 and 1663. The monastery was secularized in 1803. After that the monastery came into the possession of the Princely House Furstenberg. Part of the buildings were demolished because of the high costs in the 1850s. The church, the nave and the monastery barn have been preserved, as well as the cemetery.

References:

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User Reviews

Markus (2 years ago)
Wittichen is a beautiful valley with an unbelievably refreshing air, there are very nice hiking trails through the forest and along the tree line where you can look down into the valley. The small monastery church that can be found in the village is very nicely designed from the inside and it also offers a free toilet. I recommend it to anyone who wants to go hiking in the deep Black Forest. Unfortunately only 4 stars because there is no infrastructure here, which I personally like very much.

mexgirl Espinoza (3 years ago)
We made a little stop to visit, wittchen abbey impressed me, ??

Hartmut Mäcker (3 years ago)
Nicely located, but little can be seen of the monastery itself.

Karin Schmid (5 years ago)
Definitely very interesting, unfortunately we were unlucky. The monastery and museum were closed on our visit day. Could only see from the outside, but the church was open. Inconspicuous from the outside, very imposing from the inside.

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