Fürstäbtliche Residenz: Residence of Kempten’s Prince-Abbots
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page21 sections
History
The Fürstäbtliche Residenz in Kempten, Germany, is the former residential and representative palace of the prince-abbots of Kempten Abbey. Its rebuilding began in 1651 after the Thirty Years’ War, making it the first monumental monastic complex erected in Germany after that conflict. A prince-abbot was both the head of a monastery and a secular ruler, so the new complex combined religious facilities with a princely court.
Medieval monastery and destruction
An early monastery was founded at Kempten in the mid-eighth century by Audogar, its founder and first abbot. He may have been related to Hildegard, the Carolingian queen. A later Romanesque monastery, built largely during the thirteenth century, replaced the first foundation. From 1225, a late-medieval complex grew around a monastery church and a cloister on its south side.
The church was a three-aisled Romanesque basilica with a western transept and two eastern towers. The towers received pointed Gothic tops in 1382, and further major building work took place around 1500. The monastery also included the Chapel of Saint Nicholas of Myra, dedicated in 973 and described as the first chapel of that dedication in southern Germany.
On 22 May 1632, Swedish forces supported by the Imperial City of Kempten attacked the monastery during the Thirty Years’ War, the European conflict fought from 1618 to 1648. The entire monastery complex was destroyed, including the Chapel of Saint Nicholas of Myra. Its ruins were later demolished, creating the need for a new monastic centre.
Baroque rebuilding
Under Prince-Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg, plans for a new church and a four-winged monastery complex were prepared in 1648. He first considered moving the monastery farther from the Imperial City, leaving only the parish church and service buildings on the old site. The rebuilding ultimately took place at the historic location.
A building initially intended as a granary was already under construction when it was incorporated into the new residence as one of its wings in 1651. Michael Beer of Vorarlberg became master builder, followed by Johann Serro of Graubünden. Serro completed the central transverse wing in 1656, the wings around the eastern courtyard in 1660 and 1661, and the south and west wings around the western courtyard between 1661 and 1664. Initial interior decoration was carried out during these phases.
In 1665, parts built by Beer were demolished under Serro’s direction. The northwestern corner tower was completed in 1668, the year the prince-abbot moved into his rooms. The Hildegard Chapel was built at the centre of the eastern courtyard in 1670. Serro was dismissed after the chapel was completed because of his age. The convent moved into the new complex toward the end of 1674, one year after Roman Giel von Gielsberg’s death.
The residence and the adjoining St. Lorenz church became the institutional centre of the Prince-Abbey of Kempten in the collegiate town outside the Imperial City. The double-courtyard design was a fundamental rethinking of collegiate architecture and influenced later southern German examples. About a century afterward, the monastery of Ottobeuren explicitly cited and developed this arrangement.
Rococo transformation
From 1732, Prince-Abbot Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg transformed numerous rooms into ceremonial apartments with lavish Rococo decoration. The grand rooms on the southwestern side were built during the 1740s and completed by 1743. Their paintings were made by Franz Georg Hermann, their sculptures by the Munich court sculptor Egid Verhelst, and their stucco by Johann Georg Üblher and other artists of the Wessobrunn school, a southern German tradition of richly modelled stucco work.
This expansion also redistributed the functions of the complex. The convent moved into the eastern section, which became the convent courtyard, while the western section became the prince-abbot’s court. The ceremonial apartments followed the sequence used in the residences of secular rulers: festival hall, antechamber, audience chamber, and bedroom. Their purpose was chiefly representation and court ceremony rather than ordinary domestic life.
Secularization and later uses
Secularization, the early nineteenth-century dissolution or transfer of ecclesiastical institutions and territories to secular governments, ended the residence’s role as the seat of the prince-abbots in 1803. The canons and the last prince-abbot, Castolus Reichlin von Meldegg, were permitted to remain for some time. The vacated parts were occupied by the Bavarian military, which remained in the complex until 1945. This phase was known as the Palace Barracks.
The Hofgarten was largely built over with military barracks and a drill ground, followed by a riding hall in the nineteenth century. After 1945, the residence housed many people displaced by the Second World War, particularly Lithuanians. The rooms were later renovated and adapted for judicial use, and court proceedings were held in the grand rooms. In 1952, work associated with the district heritage conservator Alfred Weitnauer helped make the grand rooms and the Prince’s Hall accessible to the public again.
The residence now houses the Kempten Local and Regional Courts. Its successive uses as convent, princely court, military barracks, accommodation for displaced persons, and judicial complex preserve the institutional history of the former Kempten Prince-Abbey.
Remains
Plan and exterior
The residence has a rectangular ground plan measuring approximately 149 metres along its north side and 84 metres along its east side. A transverse building divides the complex into two nearly equal courtyards. Its symmetry and internal arrangement are uneven because different master builders, interventions by the patrons, and changes to the plans altered the original conception.
Square corner towers project from the complex and end in short octagonal sections. Flattened roofs with open lanterns crown the towers. The south facade has a shallow six-axis risalit, a slightly projecting section of wall, beneath an attic storey. This entrance area was constructed in 1895. Originally, the south side facing the Imperial City had no doorway.
The north front combines Michael Beer’s projecting west wing with Johann Serro’s east wing. The west wing was probably extended eastward by two axes in the nineteenth century. Serro’s east wing has a central risalit that formerly served as the entrance portal, while a gabled dormer projects from the intermediate wing toward the eastern courtyard.
Serro designed the south and west wings of the western courtyard with arcades, pilasters, and engaged half-columns. Architectural paintings on the exterior were renewed using surviving fragments of the original decoration. The residence was built partly over the foundations of the destroyed three-aisled Romanesque basilica. A sacristy extension connects it with the adjoining St. Lorenz church.
Courtyards and former spatial arrangement
Eastern and western courtyards
The earlier arrangement placed the princely rooms in the eastern wings, whose courtyard opened toward a grand entrance from the Hofgarten. The western section, oriented toward the church, served the cloistered and spiritual life of the community. The later grand rooms on the southwestern side reversed these functions, placing the courtly sequence within the western part of the complex and concentrating convent use in the east.
Hildegard Chapel
The Hildegard Chapel stood at the centre of the eastern courtyard. Built in 1670, it was demolished after secularization in 1804. It belonged to the rebuilt residence rather than to the medieval monastery. The earlier Chapel of Saint Nicholas of Myra had been destroyed with the medieval complex in 1632.
Forecourt and surrounding spaces
The southern forecourt contains a strip of greenery, a shallow flight of steps, a basin with fountains, and a watercourse. The Hofgarten lies north of the residence, while Residenzplatz extends to the south. Hildegardplatz and the St. Lorenz church on the church hill lie to the west.
Representative rooms
Coat-of-Arms Hall
The Coat-of-Arms Hall in the second storey of the northeastern wing is the oldest representative room of the foundation. Created during the period of Roman Giel von Gielsberg, it extends across four window axes toward the convent courtyard and rises one and a half storeys. Its mirror vault, a barrel-like vault with a broad flattened centre, is intersected by the small vaults of the mezzanine windows. A circular ceiling painting carries the arms of the abbot and convent.
Prince’s Hall
The Prince’s Hall was decorated around 1680 under Prince-Abbot Rupert von Bodman. It originally occupied the full width of the west wing on the second storey, but nineteenth- and twentieth-century alterations shortened it to make room for a modern staircase. Dense stucco foliage, leaf and fruit garlands, and large canvas portraits of the prince-abbots cover the room. Many portraits by Franz Georg Hermann are fictitious. Water damage led to restoration in 2012, and the hall was also used for court sessions during the coronavirus lockdown.
Chancellery
The Chancellery, a corner room facing Hildegardplatz, begins the enfilade, a sequence of rooms aligned through continuous doorways, linking the prince-abbot’s apartments. Stucco was added to its ceiling around 1733, including the arms of Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg. After a partition wall was removed, the ceiling was reconstructed in the 1950s from surviving fragments.
Around 1790 and 1791, the room became the court chancellery and received frescoes by Franz Joseph Hermann, son of Franz Georg Hermann. Putti and their attributes refer to the elements, seasons, and signs of the zodiac. Classicist doors and overdoor panels belong to this period of alteration.
Bedroom and day room
An arch divides the bedroom into two parts. The northern half formerly contained the sleeping cabinet and a state bed, while the southern window side has richer decoration. Fine stucco covers the window reveals, and later early-Rococo work with putti and busts decorates the cove, the concave transition between wall and ceiling. The room contains the arms of Reichlin von Meldegg, a ceiling painting of Jacob’s dream of the ladder to heaven, and corner scenes relating to Jacob, Tobias, and Raphael. Scenes of the deaths of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica decorate the sleeping cabinet, with the Sorrowful Virgin above the door.
The nearly square day room has rounded corner niches. Three niches contain cabinet cupboards, while the fourth holds an eighteenth-century ceramic stove from a castle in Immenstadt, replacing an earlier matching stove. Oil paintings by Franz Georg Hermann represent the four cardinal virtues. The ceiling depicts the Christian soul’s journey to heaven, and the corner cartouches represent faith, penance, self-control, and vigilance. The spaces above the doors show vices.
Audience Chamber
The audience chamber contains a stucco-marble fireplace between two corridor doors. Chronos, the personification of time in Greek mythology, appears in its imagery, while Hercules carries a globe containing a clock. Mirrors from the prince-abbot’s glass workshops in Kürnach fill the wall panels between the windows and doors. Other surfaces have stucco and stucco marble, while the wall paintings contrast virtues and vices.
Franz Georg Hermann painted the ceiling scene of the Queen of Sheba before Solomon. The corner cartouches represent peace, justice, prudence, and prosperity. Above the doors are allegories of hostility, avarice, falsehood, and sloth.
Antechamber
The antechamber extends across three window axes. It was restored in 1955 after a modern partition wall was removed. Two eighteenth-century display cabinets from the Munich Academy of Sciences now hold the surviving volumes of the prince-abbot’s working library. The collection includes works on law, medicine, agriculture, theology, and other subjects.
After secularization, the library passed to the last court printer, Joseph Kösel. Kempten publisher Paul Huber later donated it to the city on the condition that the books return to their original storage place in the residence.
Throne Room
The Throne Room, the principal representative room of the residence, was created between 1740 and 1742. Johann Georg Üblhör produced its stucco, while Egid Verhelst made four allegorical female figures. The room rises one and a half storeys beneath a mirror vault and has four south-facing windows. Two doors on each short side lead to adjoining rooms, and a central northern door opens from the corridor opposite the former throne niche.
Stucco-marble pilasters and a curved stucco balustrade mark the springing of the vault. Franz Georg Hermann’s ceiling painting includes Hildegard and her husband Charlemagne, the eighth-century Carolingian couple traditionally associated with the foundation of Kempten Abbey. Above the north entrance, an allegory of science includes astronomical instruments and books. Opposite the former throne niche, Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg’s arms appear with the sword, sceptre, and crozier of spiritual and secular authority.
Further allegories represent the arts, geometry, and architecture, with references to the history and economy of the Kempten foundation and views of its old and new buildings. Pairs of putti along the ceiling balustrade refer to the seasons. Four painted wooden female figures stand on consoles before the paired pilasters between the windows and mirrors. Peace and love are placed beside the northern entrance, while power and wisdom stand beside the former throne niche.
Guest rooms
The guest rooms form the end of the grand-room sequence. Built around 1760, they have a simple enfilade and more restrained decoration than the principal ceremonial apartments. Their ceilings carry Rococo stucco, while carved dado panelling is painted white and gold and covered with subsequently renewed fabric. Some rooms contain paintings of ruin architecture, ancient scenes, and plant motifs.
From west to east, the sequence consists of the Red Room, Green Room, southeastern corner room, northeastern corner room, and the corridor in the north wing of the convent building. Parts of the suite are now courtrooms, while others serve as offices and meeting rooms for the president of the Regional Court.
Furnishings and later alterations
The original furnishings of the rooms and halls can no longer be reconstructed as a whole. After secularization, the Electorate of Bavaria auctioned some furnishings, dispersing them around the world, while other pieces have since been repurchased. The surviving rooms, restored decorative elements, library volumes, and continuing judicial use together reflect the complex’s changing physical and institutional history.
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