The Iglingerhof and the Olsberg Monastery

15 June 2022

Every village or country road has its beauty. It is undoubtedly the case in Switzerland. The Iglingerhof comprises two houses with farms near Magden (Canton of Aargau).

The estate existed in the Middle Ages and was owned by Olsberg Monastery until 1790. This Cistercian monastery for women is the oldest of this order in Switzerland.
It was founded at the beginning of the 13th century.

Through bequests and purchases, it acquired more and more estates and vineyards in Alsace and the present-day cantons of Aargau and Basel-Landschaft. The monastery also owned properties in the towns of Rheinfelden and Basel.

The monastery was dissolved in 1803 when the canton of Aargau was created by the new Confederation (Act of Mediation of 1803). The properties were sold to private individuals. The Iglingerhof had already been sold in 1790.

In 1918, The Christian Merian Foundation acquired the Iglingerhof and 67 ha of land and forest to continue the farm for agriculture.

The Niklauskapelle already existed in the thirteenth century. It burned down in 1860, but its memory lives on in the Gothic choir, which has been restored and integrated into the complex.

In various places, medieval churches are incorporated into more modern buildings; some examples are the Romanesque chapel in Donatyre (canton of Vaud) and the Romanesque church of San Niclà in Strada (canton of Graubünden).

(Source and further information: Kloster Hortus-Dei (kloster-olsberg.ch).