Sankt Peter Abbey

The Monastery of St. Peter is a Dominican convent in Bludenz, in Vorarlberg, Austria. The monastery is located on the eastern outskirts of Bludenz, at the entrance to the Montafon and Klostertal valleys. It is the oldest still existing monastery in Vorarlberg.

The first lord of Bludenz, Count Hugo I von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg († 1280), founded a new church in 1278 in place of an older one.

Construction of the monastery began in 1286 and it was expanded until 1354. The monastery long served as a welfare institution for the daughters of the Walgau-Rhine Valley nobility and later for the bourgeois and peasant upper classes of the surrounding region.

In 1560, the plague raged in Bludenz. All sisters - except one - died. The monastery remained desolate for 16 years. The original building, inhabited by Augustinian nuns, was taken over by Dominican nuns from Hirschthal Monastery (Kennelbach) after fires in 1552 and 1576. In 1622, during the Prättigau War, all sisters except the three oldest fled. The current complex was built from 1707 to 1709, expanded between 1721 and 1723, and the monastery church of St. Peter was consecrated in 1730.

From 1805 to 1814, a military hospital was run in the monastery.

Near the monastery was also part of the city fortifications - the city gate in the east of the city ("Montafonertor" or "Kapuzinertor") was demolished in 1846 along with other parts of the former city fortifications. From here, the road led over the Arlberg and into the Montafon.

In 1920, the farm building and the stable of the farmstead near the monastery were destroyed by fire.

In 1939, the "State High School for Boys" (until 1961), later the Gymnasium, was housed in the south wing of the monastery.

The entire assets of the Dominican convent were confiscated on December 9, 1941, in favor of the German Reich, and the monastery was dissolved until 1945. In the war year 1944/45, a military hospital was set up in the school, and in May 1945, French occupation troops took up station in the monastery.

In 1997/1998, an interior restoration of the monastery church took place, and in 2006/07, the entire St. Peter monastery was extensively renovated and solemnly inaugurated in September 2007.