Schaffhausen - Kloster Allerheiligen

Kloster Allerheiligen (= "All Saints Abbey") is a former Benedictine monastery, founded by Eberhard VI. von Nellenburg in 1049. The Nellenburg family controlled the bypass of the Rheinfall waterfalls, what led to great wealth. The construction site of the monastery was consecrated by by Pope Leo IX and the works were completed already 1064.

The church was dedicated to the Saviour, the Holy Cross, the Virgin Mary and All the Saints. Allerheiligen became, instead of the Reichenau Abbey, the new grave lay by the founding family, and Eberhard himself became a monk in the abbey, and died here in 1078.

During the Investiture Controversy the pope loyal Burkhard von Nellenburg, Ebergard´s son and heir, conformed in 1080 all of the rights of the monastery. The monastery was subordinate to the Pope, and received the vast estate of the Nellenburg family, the free election of the abbot, and the town of Schaffhausen. Burkhard remained the monastery's Vogt, and motivated the abbot to join with some monks from the Hirsau Abbey, to reform the monastery on the model of Hirsau, that was based on Cluny

During the Reformation in Switzerland, the abbey was abolished, and the church of the abbey became the second main city church in 1524. Kloster Allerheiligen is a labyrinthic complex of buildings.

This building was outside the "clausura". It connected the offices of the abbot with the guest rooms. The lower part (first and second storey) including the loggia were erected in the early 13th century. There are some extraordinary carvings.

An elephant!

Depicted here (pretty precise!) is probably the "Cremona elephant", a present to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II by Sultan Al-Kamil, in 1229. Frederick used the elephant in his triumph parades.

The "Cremona elephant" was the second elephant, that reached Europe in medieval times. The first was (more than 400 years earlier) "Abul Abbas", a present to Charlemagne from Harun al-Rashid.