Murbach Abbey

Of the 12th-century Romanesque abbey church, dedicated to Saint Leodegar (St. Léger), only the transept remains with its two steeples, and the east end with the quire.

Count Eberhard gave the abbey a rich endowment and extensive privileges, including the right of free election of the abbot.

In its decline, the library at Murbach still provided a possible source (aside from Fulda Abbey) for Poggio Bracciolini's recovery in 1417 of Lucretius' lost didactic poem De rerum natura.

For example, in 805 the Alemannic nobles Egilmar, Focholt, Wanbrecht and Nothicho gave to the abbey their land and a church in the present Grissheim (Latin: villa Cressheim in pago Brisachgaginse).

It possessed property in the vicinity of Worms around 900, and is mentioned in the Wormser wall-building ordinance as one of the places that shared responsibility for maintaining the city walls.

This was a significant event for the foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy, as the Waldstätte or Forest Communities (Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) saw their trade route over Lake Lucerne cut off and feared losing their independence.

The Peace of Westphalia (Treaty of Münster) of 1648 granted parts of the Alsace to France, but reserved the abbeys of Murbach Lüders as remaining with the Holy Roman Empire.

Church of St. Leodegar, Murbach Abbey
Murbach Abbey garden
Ecclesiastical states of the Holy Roman Empire, 1648
Ecclesiastical states of the Holy Roman Empire, 1648