Pfäfers Abbey

Geschichte

Pfäfers Abbey, also known as St. Pirminsberg from its position on a mountain, was a Benedictine monastery in Pfäfers near Bad Ragaz, in the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland.Situated at the junction of the Tamina and Rhine valleys, it flourished as a religious house and owner of lands and serfs, as well as assuming extraordinary importance as a political and cultural centre of the Chur–Raetian region.HistoryMiddle AgesAccording to the chronicles of Hermann of Reichenau, Pfäfers Abbey was founded from Reichenau Abbey in 731, as Monasterium Fabariense (Latin for bean field); the first monks came from Reichenau. The founding legend refers to the itinerant bishop Saint Pirmin, with the first documentary mention of the abbey in 762. The monastery controlled the important route through the Kunkels Pass to the passes into Italy in the Graubünden. After the bishop's seat of Chur the monastery was the most important religious centre in Chur-Raetia and the diocese of Chur. Many parishes in the region were founded from Pfäfers in the 9th and 10th centuries. The substantial influence of the monastery was concentrated in eastern Switzerland, especially between Weesen and Maienfeld, but reached as far as present-day Baden-Württemberg, in the Val Bregaglia, the Vinschgau and the County of Tyrol.