Klosterruine Hirsau

Calw, Germany, Germany

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Klosterruine Hirsau (Hirsau Monastery Ruins) is the remains of a former Benedictine abbey in the Hirsau borough of Calw, near the Nagold River in the northern Black Forest of Baden‑Württemberg.

It was founded in 830 by Count Erlafried of Calw and refounded in 1049 as a reformed monastery, with construction of the great church of St. Peter and Paul beginning in 1082, modeled on Cluniac architecture; at its height it was the largest abbey in the German-speaking world and one of the most important Benedictine houses north of the Alps, and the Hirsau Reform it inspired spread throughout Germany.

The complex was destroyed by French troops in 1692 during the Nine Years' War (Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg) and fell into ruin, leaving today a striking mix of architectural styles: a well-preserved Romanesque columned basilica that once was the largest Romanesque church in southwestern Germany, a Gothic cloister, the late Gothic Marienkapelle (St. Mary's Chapel), and the ruins of a Renaissance castle whose walls once contained the famous Ulme zu Hirsau (elm tree) celebrated by poet Ludwig Uhland.

The site is freely accessible to walk through, with a museum opened in 1991 commemorating the abbey's more than 1,100-year history, exhibitions on monastic life and local history, guided tours from May to October, café service on weekends, and the annual Calwer Klostersommer summer festival held among the atmospheric ruins.