The Murbach Abbey
9 April 2023
The origins of Murbach Abbey (in today’s Haut-Rhin department) go back to the time of the Merovingians in the 8th century. Around 727, Count Eberhard founded a Benedictine abbey at the foot of the highest mountain of the Vosges, le Grand Ballon, near Guebwiller (Gebweiler in Alsatian).
The abbey was dedicated to Saint Leodegarius (Sankt Leodegar in German, Saint-Léger in French). The abbey soon became the wealthiest monastery in the region, with more than 350 possessions in Alsace, the bishoprics of Strasbourg and Basel, Lucerne and on the right bank of the Rhine in present-day Baden. Lucerne, elevated to a city in 1178, was sold to the Habsburgs in 1291. Its library was also one of the most famous on the Upper Rhine.
The Leodegar Church in Lucerne
The monastery also played an important political role. In the 13th century, the abbey became a small principality in the Holy Roman Empire. The abbot was henceforth a prince-abbot. The monastery remained Catholic during the Reformation and was a Habsburg stronghold in Alsace, but always with close ties to Basel’s prince-bishopric and later to Basel’s Protestant canton.
The first rector of the University of Basel in 1460 was Georg von Andlau (1399-1466), a nephew of the prince-abbot Bartholomäus von Andlau (1414-1476). During the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), the abbey’s treasures were transferred to Basel, a neutral territory.
After 1650 there was an armed conflict over Alsace between the Habsburg emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and the French king Louis XIV (1638-1715). Murbach Abbey played an important role as a principality. However, in 1680, France also annexed this territory.
Chapel Notre-Dame de Lorette (1693)
The monks left the abbey in the 18th century and settled in Guebwiller in the new monastery Notre-Dame de Saint Léger. Murbach Abbey was demolished, and they used the material for new buildings. Finally, in July 1789, peasants looted the abandoned palace of the prince-abbot. Only the abbey church was saved. A thousand years of history came to an end. However, the former abbey church of Saint Leodegar remains a jewel of Alsatian Romanesque architecture.
Guebwiller
The Notre-Dame de Saint Léger. The Abbots of Murbach, princes of the Holy Roman Empire, initiated the church’s construction around 1181. The style is Romanesque. The church is dedicated to St. Léger (Leodegar), bishop of Autun.
The Palais for the prince-abbot was built in the 14th century, destroyed in 1789 (French Revolution), renovated in the 19th century and is a cultural centre and museum today.
(Source and further information: Ph. Legin, L’abbaye de Murbach, St. Quen 2003)
Saint Pirmin, around 727 one of the wandering Irish monks and founders of monasteries (Vivarius Peregrinorum) in the region
