Former Cistercian monastery Wettingen, Medieval Cistercian monastery in Wettingen, Switzerland
The former Cistercian monastery Wettingen is a large religious complex in the canton of Aargau, made up of a church, a cloister, and several adjoining buildings. The structures combine Romanesque, Gothic, and Baroque sections built over centuries using local limestone and sandstone.
The monastery was founded in 1227 by Count Heinrich II of Rapperswil, who established it after surviving a shipwreck, and it remained active for over 600 years. It was dissolved in 1841 during a wave of secularization, after which the canton of Aargau took over the buildings.
The cloister walkways hold the largest collection of medieval stained glass in Switzerland, filling the passages with colored light on sunny days. Many of the panels date from the 14th to the 17th century and show biblical scenes alongside coats of arms from noble families who supported the monastery.
The complex sits in the center of Wettingen and is easy to reach on foot from the train station. The church is open for services and visits, but most of the rest of the buildings now house a cantonal school and are not open to the general public.
A Renaissance ceiling painting of the Infant Jesus survived the fire of 1507 without any damage, while large parts of the monastery were destroyed around it. The monks saw this as a miracle and left the painting in place, where visitors can still see it today.
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