Description of the attraction
The Abbey of Wettingen-Mererau is a territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Catholic Church at the diocese level, subordinate directly to the Holy See, and is led by the abbot of the Benedictine monastery.
The monastery was founded in 611 by Saint Columbanus, who, after being expelled from Löksoil, built a church here, and a little later a monastery. In 1079, the monk Gottfried, sent to Wettingen-Mehrerau, reformed the monastery and introduced the reign of St. Benedict. At the end of the 11th century, the monastery was rebuilt by Ulrich (Count of Bregenz) and inhabited by monks from the Abbey of St. Peter of Constance (Germany). In the 12-13th century, the monastery acquired ownership of many nearby lands, and in the 16th century it already had 65 parishes.
In the mid-16th century, during the Reformation, the monastery was the main support for Catholicism in the Vorarlberg region. The sermons of Abbot Ulrich Mötz had a huge impact on the inhabitants of the region, turning them against religious innovations. In the middle of the 17th century, during the war with the Swedes, the monastery was badly damaged and plundered. By 1738 the monastery was restored, but in 1805, following the Peace of Presburg, the territory of Vorarlberg, together with the abbey, was ceded to Bavaria after the defeat of Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz. In 1806, the monastery was disbanded, and some of the buildings were burned. In 1807, the remaining buildings were sold at auction, and later dismantled for materials for the construction of Landau Harbor.
In 1853, when the lands again passed to Austria, with the permission of Emperor Franz Joseph I, the lands for the monastery were redeemed again. The abbot of the new monastery was the monk of the Cistercian abbey of Wettingen. The Cistercian Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau was officially opened on October 18, 1854.
In the 19-20 century, the abbey was actively developing, in 1920 the nearby castle was acquired, which today houses a sanatorium and a secondary school with a boarding school.
