Friedrichshafen Castle

The Hofen Monastery, also known as Friedrichshafen Castle, is a former Benedictine monastery on Lake Constance in the area of today's city of Friedrichshafen.

Hofen Monastery was founded around 1085 by Berta, the wife of Count Otto I of Buchhorn, as a Benedictine nunnery. The neighboring parish church of St. Andreas and Pantaleon of the Counts of Buchhorn was subordinated to the monastery. Around 1100, the Welfs handed it over to their house monastery, Weingarten Abbey, which sent a provost to lead it. In 1215, the church was rebuilt. In the 13th century, the monastery was named Hofen Monastery after the neighboring hamlet. The monastery district - together with the village of the same name - was under the jurisdiction of the Schenk von Schmalegg-Ittendorf.

After the monastery tried to become independent in the late Middle Ages, the abbot of Weingarten objected, accused the sisters of poor administration, and had the monastery dissolved in 1419. The monastery's possessions, two villages and some scattered properties, were henceforth administered by a provost as a provostry. In 1524, Hofen Monastery was sold by Überlingen to the city of Buchhorn, which in turn sold it to Weingarten Abbey in 1548.

During the Thirty Years' War, the monastery buildings were burned down and destroyed by the Swedes in 1634. Afterwards, monastic life was revived, and from 1695-1701, under the direction of Christian Thumb, a stately convent building and a magnificent church were erected and decorated with stucco work by father and son Schmuzer. In 1702, a priory was opened here by Weingarten.

In 1803, the Imperial Abbey of Weingarten was secularized and came to Orange-Nassau, together with the monastery and village of Hofen. In 1804, it was seized by Austria and, in the Peace of Pressburg, transferred to Württemberg by Napoleon in 1806.

The village of Hofen was united with the city of Buchhorn in 1810/11 to form the city of Friedrichshafen. The monastery complex was assigned to the Württemberg Court Domain Chamber, and the church was made available to the newly founded Protestant parish of Friedrichshafen. From 1824, the monastery complex was converted into a summer residence for the Kings of Württemberg.