Ottmarsheim, près de l'abbaye. Photo/Foto: TES.

Octophonia and the Habsburg Dynasty

At this special place in Ottmarsheim in Alsace, 20 kilometres from Basel, the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul was founded by the direct ancestors of the Habsburg dynasty. Ottmarsheim Abbey was founded in 1030 by Rudolf of Altenburg. His brother Radbot of Altenburg founded the monastery of Muri (in today’s Canton of Aargau) in 1028.

The Habsburg dynasty had its roots in Alsace and settled in the eleventh and twelfth centuries on present-day Swiss territory. The mighty Murbach Abbey, founded in the eighth century in Alsace, was also a stronghold of the Habsburg dynasty.

The Murbach abbey church

The village of Habsburg (canton of Aargau) is named after the castle of this name, the Habichsburg, the hawk’s castle, from the twelfth century.

Archdukes Hertha Margarete and Sandor Habsburg Lorraine placed the flame of peace in the abbey on 15 June 2019 at the European Festival of Song and Light Octophonia. The world grows and is connected through music, while many other events and human creations divide it. That is the message of Octophonia.

Octophonia is derived from the octagonal interior of the abbey church from the first half of the 11th century, an imitation of Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel in Aachen.

The Ottmarsheim abbey and church