Weesen Abbey

Geschichte

Weesen Abbey is a monastery of Dominican nuns located in Weesen in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. The Dominican convent is located at the foot of a terraced hillside in the middle of the town of Weesen on the effluence of the Maag respectively Linth from Walensee. Established in 1256, Weesen is the oldest Dominican monastery of nuns in Switzerland. The buildings and the library respectively archives are listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance.HistoryThe name Weesen was first mentioned on 28 August 1232, in a document that confirms an exchange of goods between members of the noble families of Kyburg and Rapperswil in the villages of Oberwesin and Niderwesin that were in the possession of Kyburg to 1264 respectively of Rapperwil to 1283, when Rudolf V, the underaged brother of Elisabeth von Rapperswil died, and the fiefs were acquired by Rudolf von Habsburg.But the nucleus of the monastic community "in den Wyden" was a so-called Clos, a community of lay women or Beguines who lived in these woods (German: Wyden) before the monastery was established. With the rapid spread of the Dominican order, brother convents emerged in Zürich and Chur. Weesen was in the middle of the road of the two brother convents, and the brothers in their migrations came in contact with the modest community of beguines. As the oldest document of the monastery testifies, the women in Weesen joined the Dominican Order on 7 October 1256, and Maria Zuflucht is the oldest monastery of its kind in Switzerland.