![Kappel vilagxo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Kappel_vilagxo.jpg)
Kappel Abbey is a former
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, 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 ...
monks monastery located in
Kappel am Albis
Kappel am Albis is a municipality in the district of Affoltern in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
Its name of Kappel (german: chapel) is specified by "on the Albis" to distinguish it from two other villages called Kappel in Switzerland.
...
in the
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
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* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
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Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
canton of
Zurich.
Foundation of the abbey
Kappel Abbey is first mentioned in 1185 by
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
Hermann II of
Constance
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* Consta ...
. The abbey was founded by the
Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...
of Eschenbach. The name was derived from a chapel in which, according to a foundation legend, hermits used to live. In 1211,
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 J ...
gave the monastery the ''Privilegium commune Cisterciense''. Between the 13th to 15th centuries the Abbey received several
Imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
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United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* Imperial, Texa ...
and
Royal
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* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
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privileges.
On the site of the original church (of which parts are preserved in the present structure), a new church was started in about 1255. This early
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
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*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
building wouldn't be completed until the early 14th century. The oldest part of the monastery is the so-called core of the administration buildings, which were probably built in 1209/10 as a hospital (later the residence of the
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
and the
prior
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...
).
The spiritual and economic golden-age lasted until the middle of the 14th century. Through donations from the landed gentry (Hallwyl, Hünenberg Bonstetten, Hinwil, Baldegg, Uerzlikon, Gessler and Habsburg-Laufenburg families), purchase and exchange the Abbey had numerous, widely scattered properties. With the help of a number of
lay brother
Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, ...
s, the Abbey ran a number of businesses. These included a
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
on Lake Zurich and
grange
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* Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906
* Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682
* Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery
Geography Australia
* Grange, South Austral ...
s in
Wollishofen
Wollishofen is a neighbourhood in Zürich's district 2 (Zürich), 2nd district. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The neighbourhood has a population of 15,592 distributed on an area of 5.75&n ...
and
Zug
, neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri
, twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina)
Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...
. In the 15th century, the Abbey lost the use of most of these distant businesses, they were limited to products produced at the Abbey and a local
dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...
.
[
Due of the involvement of Walters IV von Eschenbach in the ]regicide
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
of King Albert I of Germany
Albert I of Habsburg (german: Albrecht I.) (July 12551 May 1308) was a Duke of Austria and Styria from 1282 and King of Germany from 1298 until his assassination. He was the eldest son of King Rudolf I of Germany and his first wife Gertrude o ...
near Windisch
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* Windisch, Switzerland, a municipality in the canton of Aargau
* Windisch (ethnonym), German word Wends for Slavs
* Windisch Kamnitz, German name of Srbská Ka ...
in 1308, all the Eschenbach possessions were confiscated by the Habsburgs
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
in 1309. In 1339 they were all placed under the authority of the Lords of Hallwyl
Hallwil is a municipality in the district of Lenzburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
The Castle of Hallwyl is located in the neighboring municipality Seengen.
History
Hallwil is first mentioned in 1167 as ''de Allewilare''. Between ...
. In 1344 and then in 1403 the Abbey entered into citizenship contracts with first Zug
, neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri
, twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina)
Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...
and then Zurich. Increasingly, it now fell under Zurich's authority, and after 1473 the monastic economy was under the direct supervision of the Zurich City Council. In the Old Zurich War
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, the Swiss Confederation
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
plundered the monastery, whose monks had fled to Zurich. In 1493, a fire damaged the convent building. Then, in 1495 Zurich acquired, from the lords of Hallwyl, the vogt
During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
ei or reeve rights over the Abbey. In 1523, the last abbot, Wolfgang Joner (Rüpplin), brought the reformer Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger (18 July 1504 – 17 September 1575) was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a pastor at the Grossmünster. One of the most important leaders of the Swiss Re ...
into the Abbey as a teacher. In the following years, the Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
was gradually introduced. In 1527 the monastery was abolished, and its property was taken over by the city of Zurich.[
]
The Reformation
Through Buillinger the teachings of the Reformation found their way to Kappel, and so were on 9 March 1525 the images were removed from the church. On 4 September of that same year, the Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
was abolished. A year later, on 29 March 1526, the monks celebrated Communion as Protestants and put off their cowls. Many left the monastery and turned crafts or became preachers. The Convention finally handed over the monastery in 1527 to the City of Zurich. Wolfgang Joner, Heinrich Bullinger and four other men remained in Kappel and operated the school as a boys boarding school. The present church became the parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of Kappel. During the First War of Kappel
The First War of Kappel (''Erster Kappelerkrieg'') was an armed conflict in 1529 between the Protestant and the Catholic cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the Reformation in Switzerland. It ended, without any single battle having been f ...
, in June 1529, Kappel was the scene of the encounter between Protestant and Catholic troops. The encounter ended peacefully with a negotiation and the legendary ''Kappeler Milchsuppe''. While the leaders negotiated an end to the conflict, the common soldiers began making a meal. This meal, the ''Kappeler Milchsuppe'' was a bread and milk soup cooked in a pot placed exactly on the cantonal border between Zurich and Zug
, neighboring_municipalities = Cham, Baar, Walchwil, Steinhausen, Unterägeri
, twintowns = Fürstenfeld (Austria), Kalesija (Bosnia-Herzegowina)
Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; french: Zoug it, Zugo r ...
. For the soup, the Catholics provided the milk, while the Protestants provided the bread. However, the Second War of Kappel
The Second War of Kappel (german: Zweiter Kappelerkrieg) was an armed conflict in 1531 between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the Reformation in Switzerland.
Cause
The tensions between the two parti ...
didn't end as well. On 11 October 1531, the Protestant and Catholic armies met again, and the Zurich reformer Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Unive ...
was killed.
The monastery today
Following the Reformation, the monastery became the property of the Canton of Zurich. In 1836 it was converted into a workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
and a school for orphans for the Knonau District. A "correctional institution" was added to the facility. In 1894 it became a district hospital for the poor. However, over the following decades, it gradually became too small, old and run down to continue being used as a hospital. In the 1960s the district began looking at alternative uses for the complex. Beginning in 1983, the cantonal Reformed
Reform is beneficial change
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church used the building as a spiritual retreat. Today it houses a hotel with 79 rooms.Kloster Kappel website-Hotel
accessed 4 January 2018
See also
* Kappel am Albis
Kappel am Albis is a municipality in the district of Affoltern in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
Its name of Kappel (german: chapel) is specified by "on the Albis" to distinguish it from two other villages called Kappel in Switzerland.
...
References
Literature
* Roland Böhmer: Schweizerische Kunstführer GSK, Band 728: ''Das ehemalige Zisterzienserkloster Kappel am Albis'', Bern 2002,
* Thomas Huonker und Peter Niederhäuser: ''800 Jahre Kloster Kappel – Abtei, Armenanstalt, Bildungshaus'', Orell-Füssli Zürich 2008,
External links
Kappel Abbey
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maigrauge Abbey
Cistercian monasteries in Switzerland
Buildings and structures in the canton of Zürich
Monasteries dissolved under the Swiss Reformation