Palace Church and Palace

You are standing in front of the baroque palace church and the Friedrichshafen palace. The evangelical palace church with its two 55m high towers is the symbol of the Zeppelin city. Formerly on this headland was the village Hofen with the residence of the Count of Buchhorn. Around 1,000 years ago, the Catholic Church of St. Andreas was built. Countess Bertha of Buchhorn donated a Benedictine nunnery in 1085 to the church, which was dedicated to St. Pantaleon.

Some ten years later, following an inheritance dispute, the House of Welf took possession of Hofen, and after another ten years, ceded the nunnery to the Benedictine abbey in Weingarten. The nunnery was dissolved after 1400 and served only as a provost residence of the abbey in Weingarten. In 1634, the Swedish set fire to all of Hofen in the course of the 30 Years War. The village, church and nunnery were destroyed. Today’s baroque-style church, made out of Roschacher sandstone and decorated with stucco, was reconstructed, along with an even larger monastery, into a male-only monastery. In 1702, the church was dedicated once again to the patron saints St. Andreas and Pantaleon, as the formerly devastated buildings previously had been.

The building of the church was drafted by the architect Christian Thumb, who previously was involved in other famous stucco buildings. You may know St. Michael’s Church in Munich or the Jesuit Church in Solothurn, Switzerland. In 1802, the new monastery was secularised, and four years later, Hofen was acquired by the Kingdom of Württemberg in the Treaty of Paris. In 1811, King Frederick I merged Buchhorn and Hofen to establish the city Friedrichshafen. Since 1812, the palace church has been evangelical in adherence with the denomination of the King. Interestingly, at that time, there were only 13 other evangelical parish members. The King’s son, William, converted the monastery into the summer residence of the House of Württemberg. From the palace courtyard you can see a carousel from the year 1827. This carousel was built by William I. to his children.

Strangely, a wine cellar was built under the nave of the palace church, where there would usually be a crypt, and this was used during the Second World War as an air-raid shelter. Three tower bells were also taken in the war to be converted into weapons. During a large air raid in 1944, the palace church suffered great damage. Two thirds of the roof collapsed. The highly treasured stucco could only be protected thanks to an emergency donation fund organised by a Swiss parish. The palace and church and were only restored in 1951. Today, the palace is the residence of the Duke and his family and therefore is not open to visitors. The church was given back to the evangelical parish.