The Rheinau Monastery
29 May 2023
The Celts inhabited the Rheinau peninsula (Canton of Zurich) on the Rhine centuries before Roman rule (from 13 BCE). Its location on the left bank of the Rhine and the peninsula offered good defences against the Germanic tribes on the right bank. The walls of the settlement (oppidum in Latin) stood upright until its demolition in 1840.
After the departure of the Romans in 410, the Alemanni moved into the area. The Frankish rulers of the Merovingians and Carolingians followed. They founded the famous monastery of Reichenau in 724 and the abbey of Rheinau in 778.
The Romanesque churches of St Peter and Paul, St Mary, St Mark and St George and its famous murals on the island (‘Klosterinsel’) of Reichenau were built between the 9th and 12th centuries by German kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, the successors of the Carolingians.
It confirms the common cultural space of this region on the Rhine. The dioceses of Chur and Constance owned possessions on both sides of the Rhine. Until 1803, Klein-Basel, the part of Basel on the right bank of the Rhine, belonged to the diocese of Constance. The dioceses of Chur and Constance had been under the same archbishopric of Mainz since 843. It is only since Napoleon that national borders have separated this cultural space.
The Rheinau Monastery was an independent abbey until 1455. That year, the Confederation of eight cantons (the Eidgenossenschaft) took over the ‘Schirmherrschaft’, the actual supervision (and military protection).
In 1529, the monastery and church were looted during the Reformation, but restored to Catholic glory three years later, which is remarkable in this Protestant environment. The monastery even experienced a heyday.
The present-day monastery church was consecrated in 1710. It is one of the most beautiful baroque churches in Switzerland. The church was designed in the style of Vorarlberg (Austria): a seven-bay hall with pilaster, the transept and choir slightly raised and separated from the nave for the laity by a latticework.
Upon entering the church, the magnificent side altars and main altar, the three-nave sacristy and the walnut choir stalls at the end of the church are impressive.
In 1798, Napoleon invaded the Confederation of 13 cantons. He founded the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) and then the Confederation of nineteen cantons (1803-1813).
Rheinau and its monastery were assigned to Canton Zurich in 1803. However, the canton closed the monastery in 1862. The monastery buildings were converted into psychiatric clinics. The monastery church became a parish church. The clinic was closed after 1945, and the monastery buildings stood empty for a long time. Only the House of Silence (Haus der Stille) of a small group of nuns still survives.
In 2007, the Stiftung Musikinsel Rheinau (Musikinsel Rheinau Foundation) was founded. After a thorough renovation and payment of rent to the canton, the Musikinsel Rheinau offers practice and study space to young musicians. The project is so successful that the foundation wants to include other empty buildings and bear the renovation costs.
However, these buildings are also reserved for another project: a museum. This museum aims to present the history of the Celts, the monastery and the clinic. The museum is a project of the Verein (Association) Inselmuseum Rheinau.
The canton agreed to this project and funded the feasibility study in 2014. The result was positive, and a project and financing plan was submitted. The Verein Inselmuseum Rheinau and the Stiftung Musikinsel Rheinau have the same buildings in mind. Meanwhile, the canton’s parliament is also interfering in this stalemate.
A luxury problem for one of the many vacant monasteries and other church buildings. This impasse does not diminish the beauty of the location and the monastery complex. The Rhine quietly meanders on and does not care about borders.
The German bank of the Rhine