Schönau Abbey (Odenwald)

[1] The present settlement of Schönau grew up round the monastery.

In 1156 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa conferred upon his half-brother the Vogtei of Schönau Abbey.

Around 1190, Rudolph I, Count Palatine of Tübingen gave the Cistercians the abandoned Premonstratensian abbey of Bebenhausen.

In 1562, Frederick III, Elector Palatine used the empty buildings to provide housing for Huguenot refugees from Wallonia.

[3] By the end of the 12th century Schönau was already in use as a burial place of the Staufen family: in 1195 Conrad of Hohenstaufen, Count Palatine of the Rhine, was buried here, as were his son of the same name, probably in 1186, and both his wives.