Kloster Mehrerau (Mehrerau Monastery), Bregenz

Kloster Mehrerau stands by Lake Constance and has more than a thousand years of history. Tradition says Saint Columbanus stayed here around 610–612. The first clearly recorded monastery was founded in the late 11th century by the Counts of Bregenz. The Benedictine monks moved to the lakeshore around 1090–1094, laid the foundation stone of a stone church in 1097, and remained until the abbey was dissolved in 1806 under Bavarian rule.

A new phase began in 1854, when Cistercian monks forced to leave Wettingen Abbey in Switzerland bought the site. They reopened the monastery on 18 October 1854 as Wettingen-Mehrerau. The church interior was redesigned between 1961 and 1964 by Hans Burtscher in a simple modern style inspired by Cistercian simplicity. In the crypt, older Romanesque and Baroque remains, including the tomb of Cardinal Hergenröther, are still visible.

Mehrerau has a special status as a Territorial Abbey, which means it answers directly to the Holy See. The abbot is not automatically a bishop, but he has similar authority here and is a member of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference. He also leads the Mehrerau Congregation. The monks run the Collegium Bernardi secondary school and the Sanatorium Mehrerau, and the complex was renovated between 2020 and 2024.