Buchau Abbey

Buchau Abbey or the Imperial Abbey of Buchau () was a nunnery, and later collegiate foundation, in the present town of Bad Buchau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
According to its legend, it was founded in about 770 on an island in the Federsee by the Frankish Count Warin and his wife Adelindis (still commemorated in the local Adelindisfest). The nunnery was put on a secure financial footing by Louis the Pious, who in 819 granted the nuns property in the Saulgau and in Mengen. In 857, Louis the German declared it a private religious house of the Carolingian Imperial family and appointed as abbess his daughter Irmingard (died 16 July 866).
In the 13th century, it was counted as an Augustinian house, but thereafter was a collegiate foundation of canonesses from noble families in Swabia. In 1347, the establishment became reichsunmittelbar and the abbess was raised to the rank of Princess-Abbess.
In 1415, the abbey became a secular foundation. It was able to expand its property to create a small territory. In 1625, the feudal lordship of Strassberg reverted to the abbey.
In the secularisation of 1803, it was dissolved and its assets passed to Thurn and Taxis, from where they were transferred to Württemberg as early as 1806. The lordship of Strassberg however fell into the hands of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
The abbey church of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, one of the first neo-classical buildings in southern Germany, still with some late Baroque features, was constructed between 1774 and 1776 by Pierre Michel d'Ixnard as a conversion and refurbishment of a Gothic church. It includes stucco sculptures by Johann Joseph Christian.
==External links==
* Map of Swabia, 1789
Category:Monasteries in Baden-Württemberg
Category:Augustinian monasteries in Germany
Category:Augustinian nunneries
Category:Christian monasteries established in the 8th century
Category:770 establishments
Category:1347 establishments
Category:1803 disestablishments
de:Damenstift Buchau
it:Abbazia di Buchau
nl:Abdij Buchau
uk:Бухау (абатство)