Church of St. Nicholas

The Catholic Church of St. Petrus Canisius was built between 1927 and 1928 according to a design by Hugo Schlösser and Wilhelm Friedrich Laur. In 1938, the church was raised to the status of an independent parish church. The structure is an ostentatious three-nave basilica in the expressionist architectural style.

The Schlosskirche was part of the Hofen Monastery, built between 1695 and 1702. In 1803, the imperial Weingarten Monastery, to which the Hofen Monastery belonged, was secularised. The monastery complex with the church was assigned to the Württemberg court estate, which made the church building available to the newly founded Protestant parish of Friedrichshafen in 1812. On 28th April 1944, during a bombing raid during the Second World War, the church was severely damaged. During the reconstruction of the church from 1949 to 1954, the missing stucco was added by Josef Schnitzer in a simpler form based on old photos.

Salem Abbey, founded in 1136, was one of the most important Cistercian monasteries in Germany. The abbey soon became very prosperous, with large and magnificent structures erected in three different courtyards and a splendid church built between 1182 and 1311. Other foundations such as Raitenhauslach Abbey (1143), Wettingen Abbey or Stella Maris (1227) and Königsbronn Abbey (1303) were founded from this abbey. A fire in 1697 almost completely destroyed the abbey, which was immediately rebuilt in the baroque style. In 1803, the monastery was abolished and the buildings were used by the Grand Dukes of Baden, who united them in the Salem Castle complex.