Koenigsbruck Abbey otherwise Königsbrück Abbey (french: Abbaye de Koenigsbruck; german: Kloster Königsbrück) was a

Cistercian nunnery Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church. History The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in t ...

in the Forest of Haguenau, near

Leutenheim Leutenheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It lies east of Haguenau and a short distance west of the Rhine, which here defines the frontier between France and Germany. History In eighth- and nint ...

, Alsace, Bas-Rhin, France, on the

River Sauer The Sauer (German and Luxembourgish, , ) or Sûre (French, ) is a river in Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. A left tributary of the Moselle, its total length is . Rising near Vaux-sur-Sûre in the Ardennes in southeastern Belgium, the Sauer ...

History

The abbey was founded in or around 1140 (or possibly in 1152) by Duke Frederick II of Swabia for Cistercian nuns. It was one of the wealthiest religious houses in Alsace, and among other privileges had customs immunity for a ship on the Rhine. It was plundered during the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

in 1525, and again during the Thirty Years' War in 1621. Between 1621 and 1673 the nuns were unable to live in it, and moved to

Haguenau Haguenau (; Alsatian: or ; and historically in English: ''Hagenaw'') is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg, some to the south. To the ...

. It was reconstructed in the 18th century, when

Peter Thumb Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

built the abbey church. The abbey was dissolved during the French Revolution, in 1793, when the nuns moved to

Lichtenthal Abbey Lichtenthal Abbey (german: Kloster Lichtenthal) is a Cistercian nunnery in Lichtenthal in the town of Baden-Baden, Germany. History and buildings The abbey was founded in 1245 by Irmengard bei Rhein, widow of Margrave Hermann V of Baden, whose ...

near Baden-Baden.

Structures

Apart from a mill, there are no visible remains of the buildings except for a few foundation walls near the inn ''Au Vieux Couvent''. A number of altars formerly in the abbey church are now in the church of Roeschwoog. The abbey's later town house in Haguenau remains, the ''Hôtel de Koenigsbruck'', Grand-Rue 142 (built in 1748), notable for its wrought iron work. It was listed as a

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

in 1930.

References

* Peugniez, Bernard, nd: ''Routier cistercien'' (2nd edn, p 11). Moisenay: Editions Gaud * Hotz, Walter, 1976: ''Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler im Elsass und in Lothringen'' (2nd edn, p 106). Munich - Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag

External links

Certosa di Firenze website: Königsbrück
Cistercian nunneries in France Christian monasteries in Bas-Rhin 1140s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire 1140 establishments in Europe 1793 disestablishments in France {{BasRhin-struct-stub