Heggbach Abbey

Heggbach Abbey was a Cistercian nunnery in Heggbach, now part of the municipality of Maselheim in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.HistoryIn 1231 Beguines from nearby Maselheim founded a convent at the Hecchibach, close to a church whose dedication to Saint Pancras suggests may have been a proprietary church of the Counts of Berg. This church was supervised by Salem Abbey. The following year, the small convent at Heggbach was also put under the supervision of Salem Abbey. Between 1233 and 1244 Hekebach was incorporated into the Cistercian order and received a charter, dated 26 June 1248, affirming its status as an independent abbey.The abbesses and nuns of Heggbach Abbey were drawn predominantly from peasant and merchant families of the villages and cities in the vicinity. However, in later times, nuns also came from more distant areas and from local families of the lesser nobility.Although major building works were completed under abbess Halwig Wachsgäb (1312-1322), the basic structure and layout of the nunnery, seems to have already been largely finished at around the time of its establishment, since during restoration in 1980 late Romanesque round-arched windows were discovered, as was the northern entry of the enclosure, similar in style, in the west wing. Similar openings, later bricked up, have been preserved above the vaults in the cloister.