Kappel Abbey

The Kloster Kappel is a former Cistercian monastery in Kappel am Albis in Switzerland.

History

From the foundation to the beginning of the 16th century

In 1185 the monastery was donated by the Barons von Eschenbach Schnabelburg and confirmed by the Bishop of Constance Herman II. The first abbot William and his monks stood a chapel available to build a Cistercian monastery. The mother monastery of Kappel was the abbey Hauterive ( canton of Fribourg ). By Pope Innocent III. received the monastery in 1211 the privilege commune Cisterciense, and it was placed under the protection of the Pope.

By the end of the 14th century it was the monastery of the founding family and other noble families donations, especially in Knonauer office to Zug, today Aargau, in the canton of Lucerne, on Lake Zurich and around Zurich. These lands were scattered in central Switzerland. With the development of society, especially the emerging money economy, the rise of cities and by the competition of the mendicant orders, the monastery came into financial difficulties. In addition, the monastery came more and more under the influence of worldly men, especially after the assassination of King Albrecht in 1308. Way closed the monastery in 1344 an eternal alliance with the city train in 1344 and just such with Zurich 1403. Through these alliances became the monastery in the Old Zurich war between the fronts and was sacked by the Confederates in 1443. A fire destroyed on 15 January 1493 convent building, which let rebuild the abbot Ulrich. Due to his extravagant lifestyle Abbot Ulrich in 1508 was forced to resign.

The Reformation

Under Abbot Ulrich's successor, Wolfgang Joner a new spirit found its way. In 1523 he convened the first nineteen years of Heinrich Bullinger to Kappel, who taught there as a private tutor, the monks and young men from the area. By Bullinger the doctrines of the Reformation found their way to Kappel, and so the images were on March 9, 1525 removed from the monastery church and abolished the Holy Mass on 4 September of the same year. A year later, on March 29, 1526, the Lord's Supper celebrated the monks the first time to the Reformed order and took off their robes. Many left the monastery and turned to a craft or were preachers. The Convention finally handed over the monastery in 1527 to the city of Zurich. Wolfgang Joner, Heinrich Bullinger and four other men remained on the school as a boy's boarding school in Kappel and operated. The former monastery church became a parish church of Kappel. During the first war Kappeler 1529 Kappel was in June the scene of the march of the Reformed and Catholic troops, who took a peaceful end to the legendary Kappeler milk soup; otherwise on October 11, 1531 than in the second battle of Kappel the Zurich reformer Zwingli fell.

The Abbey today

After the Reformation, the monastery Zurich State domain remained. As of 1834, the buildings were used for social purposes, since 1983 of the Zurich state church as the venue named the house of silence and encounter. Since 2008, it re-establish the name Kloster Kappel. The monastery has been renovated since 2009.