Germany
The Prince-Abbots' Residence in Kempten is the former residential and ceremonial palace of the prince-abbots of Kempten Abbey in Kempten in the Allgäu. It is the first monumental abbey complex built in Germany after the Thirty Years' War. Under Prince-Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg, construction of the new Baroque abbey complex began in 1651 on the site of the destroyed medieval Benedictine abbey. The master builder initially employed was Michael Beer of Vorarlberg. His successor was the architect Johann Serro from Graubünden. At the same time the collegiate and parish church of St. Lorenz was built, connected to the residence by a sacristy annex.
The high point of the interior decoration is the state rooms, which Prince-Abbot Anselm von Reichlin-Meldegg had completed by 1743. The lavish splendour of their decoration, with paintings by the Italian-trained Franz Georg Hermann, sculptures by the Munich court sculptor Egid Verhelst (1696–1749), and stuccowork by Johann Georg Üblher and other artists of the Wessobrunn school, make them one of the most important buildings of South German Rococo.
The architecture of the residence as a double-courtyard complex is a fundamental new conception that was to prove groundbreaking for the further development of South German abbey architecture; a century later it was impressively echoed and continued in the construction of Ottobeuren Abbey. The residence was at once a princely seat and a monastery. Originally the state rooms were arranged in the eastern wings, whose inner courtyard opened onto the grand entrance from the palace garden. The western section, oriented toward the church, served the enclosure and religious life. With the construction of the state rooms on the southwest side in the 1740s, the uses were swapped: the eastern wing was assigned to the convent, while the western part served the prince-abbot's court.
Machine-translated from “Fürstäbtliche Residenz” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fürstäbtliche Residenz ranks #6,419 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #569 of the 711 mapped in Germany. The nearest day-trip guide is Innsbruck, 96 km away. See how Germany compares in the castle statistics.
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