Gengenbach Abbey

Gengenbach Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Gengenbach in the district of Ortenau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was an Imperial Abbey from the late Carolingian period to 1803.
It was founded by Saint Pirmin sometime after his expulsion from Reichenau in 727 and settled by monks from Gorze Abbey. It enjoyed good relations with the Carolingian dynasty and soon became an Imperial abbey, with territorial independence. In 1007, however, Emperor Henry II presented it to his newly founded Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. Whilst situated within the Ortenauer Reichslandvogtei, under the protection of Rudolph of Habsburg , the territory's protectors were an array of local lords: the Zähringen were followed in 1218 by the Staufen dukes of Swabia and in 1245 by the bishops of Strasbourg until the 1550s. These Vögte and confirmations of their rights — both Papal and Imperial — ensured the Abbey's continual independence.

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