Stams is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in Imst District, in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

. It is chiefly known for

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 ...

Stams Abbey (''Stift Stams''), founded in 1273 by Count

Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol Meinhard II (c. 1238 – 1 November 1295), a member of the House of Gorizia (''Meinhardiner''), ruled the County of Gorizia (as Meinhard IV) and the County of Tyrol together with his younger brother Albert from 1258. In 1271 they divided their he ...

and his wife.Chizzali. ''Tyrol: Impressions of Tyrol.'' (Innsbruck: Alpina Printers and Publishers), p. 64

Geography

Stams is located on the southern shore of the

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

River about east of

Imst Imst (; Southern Bavarian: ''Imscht'') is a town in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. It lies on the River Inn in western Tyrol, some west of Innsbruck and at an altitude of above sea level. With a current population (2013) of 9,552, Imst ...

, west of Telfs and west of the state capital

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

. The village contains Stams has 1300 inhabitants who are living in different parts of the village – called Thannrain, Windfang, Staudach, Haslach, Maehmoos und Hauland.

History

Archaeological findings indicate a church already existed at the site about 700 AD. The locality of ''Stammes'' in the

Duchy of Bavaria The Duchy of Bavaria (German: ''Herzogtum Bayern'') was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (''duces'') under Fr ...

was first mentioned in a 1063 deed, it became a possession of the

Counts of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised pr ...

. The

Meinhardiner The Counts of Gorizia (german: Grafen von Görz; it, Conti di Gorizia; sl, Goriški grofje), also known as the Meinhardiner, were a Graf, comital, Fürst, princely and Herzog, ducal dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire. Named after Gorizia Castle i ...

count Meinhard II of Gorizia, sole ruler of Tyrol from 1271, established a proprietary monastery together with his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria, widow of the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty ...

king Conrad IV of Germany. The first Cistercian monks descended from

Kaisheim Kaisheim is a municipality in the district of Donau-Ries in Bavaria in Germany. It was the location of Kaisheim Abbey. History Kaisheim was the local High Reeve's office and belonged to Kaisheim Abbey, an Imperial Abbey,. The Abbey was founded ...

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

, itself a filial of Morimond Abbey; they were enfeoffed with extended estates in Silz, Meran and Mals and soon evolved to a spiritual centre of the region. It became the burial place not only of Count Meinhard and his consort, but also of his son Duke

Henry of Carinthia Henry of Gorizia (german: Heinrich, cs, Jindřich; – 2 April 1335), a member of the House of Gorizia, was Duke of Carinthia and Landgrave of Carniola (as Henry VI) and Count of Tyrol from 1295 until his death, as well as King of Bohemia, Marg ...

, of the

Habsburg 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 ...

duke Frederick IV of Austria and his wife Anna of Brunswick, of his son Archduke Sigismund of Austria and his wife

Eleanor of Scotland Eleanor of Scotland (1433 – 20 November 1480) was an Archduchess of Austria by marriage to Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, a noted translator, and regent of Austria in 1455-58 and 1467. She was a daughter of James I of Scotland and Joan Bea ...

, as well as of Bianca Maria Sforza, second wife of Emperor

Maximilian I Maximilian I may refer to: *Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, reigned 1486/93–1519 *Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, reigned 1597–1651 *Maximilian I, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1636-1689) *Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, reigned 1795� ...

. During the 16th-century

Protestant 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 ...

and

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 ...

the monastic community decayed. In the course of the 1552 rebellion against Emperor Charles V, the premises were plundered by the troops of Elector

Maurice of Saxony Maurice (21 March 1521 – 9 July 1553) was Duke (1541–47) and later Elector (1547–53) of Saxony. His clever manipulation of alliances and disputes gained the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty extensive lands and the electoral dignity. ...

; even the grave of Maurice' brother Severinus was destroyed. The monastery was largely rebuilt in its present-day

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style from the early 17th century onwards, including Wessobrunner stuccowork by

Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer (the Elder) (1698–1763) was a German Baroque stucco plasterer of the Wessobrunner School. Feuchtmayer was born in Wessobrunn, Bavaria. A member of the famous Feuchtmayer family, he was the son of Michael Feuchtmayer ...

. Stams Abbey was temporarily dissolved in 1807 by order of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, who had received the Tyrolean lands by the 1805 Peace of Pressburg but re-established after Stams was restored to the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

in 1816. Again disseized by the Nazi German authorities upon the Austrian ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

'' in 1938, it was resettled by Cistercian monks after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, who established several educational institutions, including the ''Skigymnasium Stams'' (Stams ski boarding school), the ''Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule – Edith Stein''

school of education In the United States and Canada, a school of education (or college of education; ed school) is a division within a university that is devoted to scholarship in the field of education, which is an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences en ...

, and the ''Meinhardinum'' gymnasium. The abbey church was elevated to the rank of a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in 1984.

Population

Image gallery

Image:Stift Stams 4.JPG, Stams Monastery Image:Stift-Stams-church-inside.jpg, Stams Monastery interior Image:Stift Stams 5.JPG, Stams Monastery interior Image:Kloster stams 2010 014.jpg, Stams Monastery interior Image:Stams Pfarrkirche 6359.jpg, Church Stams

Twin town

Stams is twinned with: *

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, since 1978

References

External links

* http://www.stiftstams.at * http://www.pfarrestams.at {{Authority control Cities and towns in Imst District