The minster was the abbey church of the important Reichenau monastery (Latin: Monasterium Augiensis) and is the largest of the three Romanesque churches on the island.
The monastery island of Reichenau, together with the church, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
After the first wooden monastery church was probably built under the founding abbot Pirmin from 724, Abbot Haito had a Carolingian basilica built on a cross plan, parts of which are still preserved today in the crossing and in the east transept. It was consecrated on August 16, 816 in honor of the Virgin Mary.
In 830, Bishop Radolt of Verona, an Alemanne, brought relics from Italy to Lake Constance, including relics of St. Mark the Evangelist from Venice. Haito's successor Erlebald (823-838) expanded the abbey church with a nave yoke, a west transept and a double-towered west work. Walahfried Strabo names the priest-monk Einmuot as the architect of this construction phase.
Another treasure of relics, a Byzantine abbot's cross with a relic of the Holy Blood, came to Reichenau in 925. In her honor, a rotunda modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was built to the east behind the basilica by 946.
For reasons that have been handed down through legend and can only be assumed historically - the translation legend reports a promise of secrecy by Radolt - the veneration of St. Mark on the Reichenau only gained in importance around the turn of the millennium and, after intermediate stages in the 10th century, required the expansion of the Carolingian church under Abbot Berno The shape that has essentially been preserved to this day, most notably through a further western extension with a new transept in place of the old western structure and in front of it a monumental, transversely rectangular and richly structured tower. This west building became the liturgical place for the exhibition and veneration of the relics of St. Mark. Berno's Minster was consecrated on April 24, 1048, the eve of St. Mark's Day, by Bishop Theodoric on behalf of and in the presence of Emperor Heinrich III.
The barrel-shaped "Norman" roof truss made of oak (open again since 1970) dates from 1236/37.
In the late Gothic period, the Reichenau abbey flourished and the Gothic choir was built. The Holy Blood Chapel was demolished for this.
burial
The great-grandson of Charlemagne, Emperor Charles III. (“Charlemagne”), the last ruler of united France and the only king of the Alemanni, died on January 13, 888 in Neudingen an der Donau and was buried in the cathedral at his own request. His grave slab, embedded in the chancel of the minster, contains the inscription "CAROLVS III IMPERATOR † 888"; it was moved to the sacristy in 1728.
Some abbots like Berno or Mangold von Brandis also found their last resting place in the church.
Duke Gerold, brother of Hildegard, wife of Charlemagne, was buried here in 799.
equipment and treasury
Only parts of the former wealth of the Reichenau Abbey have survived. Numerous valuable manuscripts, liturgical vessels and vestments ended up in other churches and collections after the monastery closed in the 18th century. Nevertheless, the interior of the minster with statues, tombstones, murals and oil paintings from the Gothic and Baroque periods is remarkable.
When entering the church in the east, the visitor notices the baroque chancel grille (1746) and behind it the altar of the Holy Blood (1739). On the north wall of the Romanesque choir stump there is a sandstone sculpture of the Mother of God with Child (around 1300) and a large picture of St. Christopher, opposite other late Gothic wall paintings (Christ on the Mount of Olives; picture of Mary with donors).
The altars in the side aisles bear a Pietà (around 1350; north) and a Martyrdom of St. Stephen (1596; South).
In the Gothic high choir there is a winged altar with the coronation of the Virgin and saints by Rudolf Stahel (1498). Catechism-like wall paintings from the second half of the 16th century revolve around the subject of the Eucharist.
In the center of the west apse is the St. Mark's altar from 1477, which contains the St. Mark's relics in a copy of the original shrine.
The treasury keeps i.a. the original St. Mark's shrine and other valuable reliquary shrines and vessels as well as, as the last remaining testimony of the Reichenau illuminator art, an evangeliary from the middle of the 9th century.
Of particular note is the Holy Blood relic, which is said to contain the blood-soaked earth of Calvary, a sliver of Christ's cross (behind a small gold Byzantine abbot's cross), and a blood-soaked silk handkerchief. The relic was given to Charlemagne in Jerusalem and then came to Reichenau. During the Thirty Years' War this relic was placed in a monastery near Freiburg and only returned to the monastery in 1737 with a baroque setting and precious stones. In 1746 it was transformed into a monstrance. It is kept in the Holy Blood Altar in the Minster.
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