St. Marx Abbey, 12th-century abbey in Gueberschwihr, France

St. Marx Abbey is a long, low building complex with pale cream walls and steep brown-tiled roofs, standing at the foot of a wooded hillside in Gueberschwihr. The left section is a large rectangular block with evenly spaced windows fronted by pale shutters, small dormer windows and two ridge chimneys; a lower wing continues to the right. A low pale stone wall with a dark arched gateway bearing a circular symbol runs in front. The present buildings date from the 1852 rebuild.

A monks' community on the site ended after a fire; Abbot Theoger of St. George's in the Black Forest founded the Benedictine nunnery around 1105. A deed of Pope Lucius III placed it under St. George's care in 1184, and around 1400 a St. George's monk served as prior. The priory passed to Ebersmünster in 1754; after the French Revolution the empty buildings were taken in 1845 by Abbé Pierre Paul Blanck, burned in 1852 and rebuilt, and the community became a formal order on 9 October 1868.

The abbey is dedicated to Saint Mark, whose name it bears. Since 1845 it has been the mother house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Marc, founded by Abbé Pierre Paul Blanck; the community was formally constituted on 9 October 1868 with Sister Maria Xavier as superior. The sisters combine veneration of the Holy Sacrament with manual labour and the care of orphans.

The site is located in a village within the Alsatian wine region and is accessible on foot from central Gueberschwihr. Visitors should remember this is an active religious community and respect for residents is important.

In the 18th century the community operated its own brewery, showing how monasteries secured their own supplies. This form of self-sufficiency was typical for religious communities of that period and allowed them to maintain independence.