Lorch Abbey

[1] It lay on allodial property a few miles north of Hohenstaufen Castle on the other side of the river Rems.

He was then appointed by his brother, King Conrad III, who ruled that the head of the dynasty would thenceforth always be elected advocatus.

[1] From the 13th century, the lords of Woellwarth [de] endowed a chapel olding a purported relic of the skull of Saint Maurice.

[1][3] In 1475, Abbot Nikolaus Schenk von Arberg opened the Staufer tombs and gathered the bones into a single new richly carved sarcophagus and placed it in the nave.

[3] During the Thirty Years' War, it was briefly restored as a Catholic house under the Abbey of Saint Blaise in 1630.

[4] Plans to demolish the remains of the monastery were halted in the late 19th century, when it came to be seen as a monument to the Staufer.

Today, it is operated by Baden-Württemberg's State Palaces and Gardens [de] and is open to visitors.

[3] Lorch was a fortified monastery, surrounded by a rampart and stone wall with round towers.

[3] Originally Romanesque, the church received a Gothic renovation in 1469 under Abbot Nikolaus Schenk von Arberg.

A modern mural depicting the sweep of Staufer history was added by Hans Kloss to the chapter house.

The bailiwick, the residence of the steward and later used by the dukes of Württemberg during hunting trips, has been torn down.

[3] The monastery's outbuildings included a hospital, school, cavalier house and tithe barns.