040 GERMANY - Monastic Island of Reichenau

Reichenau Island is an island in Lake Constance in southern Germany. It lies between Gnadensee and Untersee, two parts of Lake Constance, almost due west of the city of Kostanz. The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway that was completed in 1838. The causeway is interrupted between the site of the former castle Schopflena and the eastern end of Reichenau Island by the 10-metre-wide Bruckgraben, a waterway which is spanned by a low road bridge that allows passage of ordinary boats but not of sailboats through its 95-metre course. Its total are is less than 7 square kilometers. It was declared a World Heritage Site because of its monastery, the Abbey of Reichenau. The abbey's Münster is dedicated to the Virgin and Saint Mark.

The Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau was founded in 724 by the itinerant Saint Pirmin, who is said to have fled Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders, with patronage that included Charles Martel, and, more locally, Count Berthold of the Ahalolfinger and the Alemannian Duke Santfrid I. Pirmin's conflict with his local patron resulted in his leaving Reichenau in 727. Under his successor Haito the monastery began to flourish. It gained influence in the Carolingian dynsty, under Abbot Waldo of Reichenau, by educating the clerks who staffed Imperial and ducal chanceries.

About the sender

Nina J. Watson (direct swap) sent from Radolfzell (Germany) on 17.07.2013