Windisch

Windisch is situated at the site of the Roman legion camp Vindonissa. Originally a Celtic God, the name Vindos points to a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos and the most likely origin of the Windisch place name. In 1064 the current municipality was mentioned as Vinse, and in 1175 as Vindisse. Until the 19th Century the official name was Windisch und Oberburg.
Windisch grew into a regional power following the foundation of Königsfelden Abbey in 1309 in memory of the regicide of King Albert I of Germany in the previous year. Albert was on the way to suppress a revolt in Swabia when he was murdered on May 1, 1308, near Windisch on the Reuss, by his nephew John of Swabi, afterwards called "the Parricide" or "John Parricida", whom he had deprived of his inheritance. After the foundation of the Abbey, the village was placed under the authority of the Abbey. Starting in 1348 the rights to high and low justice were held by Agnes of Hungary. In 1411 those rights transferred back to the monastery. The abbey church, possibly in antiquity under the patronage of St. Martin but in the Middle Ages under the patronage of Mary, is built on the site of the 6th Century Bishop's church. The present building, with a late-Romanesque nave and Gothic choir, was built between 1310-30. The church's charnel house was rebuilt in 1793 into a schoolhouse.

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