Tänikon Abbey

Tänikon Abbey is a former Cistercian nunnery in the village of Ettenhausen in the municipality of Aadorf in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. The former abbey church and the conventual buildings, now Agrotechnorama Tänikon, are both Swiss heritage sites of national significance.
Tänikon was first mentioned in 789 as Tanninchova as a local court. In 817 emperor Louis the Pious gave all his lands in Thurgau, including Tänikon, to the Abbey of St. Gall. An established nunnery at Tänikon was first mentioned in 1249. In 1257, the abbey church took over the rights to the nearby chapel of St. Anna. Around the same time Eberhard II and Eberhard III of Bichelsee granted land holdings to the abbey and it became Cistercian. In 1263, Pope Urban IV asked the abbot of Kappel to administer Tänikon. From 1268 the community had a number of lay brothers who lived and worked onsite. They were slowly replaced by secular servants or employees and by 1491 there were no more lay brothers. In 1415 the Hohenlandenberg and Gachnang families donated money to help establish a parish benefice for the chapel. By 1520, the abbey owned land or rights in Aadorf, Bichelsee, Elgg, Ellikon, Ettenhausen Gerlikon, Guntershausen, Hagenbuch, Krillberg, Lommis, Niederwil, Stettfurt, Tannegg and Tuttwil. In 1508 Abbess Anna Welter of Blidegg built a new refectory on the grounds.

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