Lindau Abbey (german: Reichsstift Lindau) was a house of secular canonesses in

Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major town and island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the county (''Landkreis' ...

on the

Bodensee Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

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 ...

, which stands on an island in the lake.

History

The community, dedicated to the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

, is traditionally held to have been founded by Count Adelbert of

Raetia Raetia ( ; ; also spelled Rhaetia) was a province of the Roman Empire, named after the Rhaetian people. It bordered on the west with the country of the Helvetii, on the east with Noricum, on the north with Vindelicia, on the south-west ...

in about 822.or possibly 817 The town of Lindau grew round the foundation. The abbey was granted

Imperial immediacy Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...

(german: Reichsfreiheit) in 1466. During the

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 ...

on the mainland were the only places in this region to remain Catholic. The community was dissolved in 1802 in the course of the

secularisation In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

of German Imperial Abbeys, and its assets taken over by the Prince of Bretzenheim (son of Elector of Bavaria Charles Theodore), who in 1804 exchanged Lindau for estates in Bohemia and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. In 1806 the territory became part of the new Kingdom of Bavaria. The residential and service buildings were used for local government offices. The canonesses' church became the present

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

minster-church of the

on the market place in the Old Town of Lindau. The church building originated at the same time as the religious community, that is, in the early 9th century. After the fire of 1728 that destroyed most of the town the church was rebuilt in Baroque style by the master builder Giovanni Gaspare Bagnato, who also built

Schloss Mainau ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogna ...

and the "New Castle" at Meersburg. The interior has Baroque ceiling paintings and

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

decorations.

Other religious houses in Lindau

Lindau has also contained other religious houses.

Franciscans

There was a friary here of the

Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachi ...

or Minorites (founded 1224, dissolved 1528) and also a monastery of

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s of the Third Order of St. Francis (founded before 1238), which survived the

by becoming Protestant and was secularised at the same time as Lindau Abbey. The church of the Minorites is still in existence as the ''Lindauer Stadttheater'' ("Lindau Town Theatre") but the cloister of the tertiary nuns were demolished in 1861. These premises were sometimes known as the ''Kloster am Steg'' ("monastery on the jetty").

Beguinage

There was also a house of the

Beguines The Beguines () and the Beghards () were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take forma ...

, founded in 1268. On 15 May 1525 it was dissolved and sold off. The buildings were bought in 1857 by the

Sisters of Loreto The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Loreto Sisters, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to education founded in Saint-Omer by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609. The cong ...

, known locally as the "English Ladies" (''Englische Fräulein''), who founded here a "Private Higher School for Girls" (''Private Höhere Töchterschule''). Of its successor establishments, the ''Insel-Institut'' was closed in 1991, but the ''Maria-Ward-Realschule'' continues as a ''

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

'' for girls within the educational programme of the

Diocese of Augsburg Diocese of Augsburg is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich.Klöster in Bayern: Kanonissenstift Lindau
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Maria-Ward-Realschule Lindau home page
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Lindau municipal website: history
{{Authority control Imperial abbeys disestablished in 1802–03 States and territories established in 1466 Monasteries in Bavaria Roman Catholic churches in Bavaria Franciscan monasteries in Germany Franciscan convents Schools in Bavaria Christian monasteries established in the 9th century Beguinages Lindau (district)