Prince-Abbey of Corvey

Origins

Corvey was founded in 822 on the Weser near Höxter by monks from Corbie in Picardy, led by Adalard and Wala, cousins of Charlemagne, with the support of Louis the Pious. It was intended to anchor Christianity in newly conquered Saxony, and in 836 it received the relics of Saint Vitus from Saint-Denis.

Rule and society

Corvey sent Ansgar on his mission to Denmark and Sweden, and its school produced Widukind of Corvey, whose Deeds of the Saxons is a chief source for the Ottonian kings. The abbots were princes of the Empire ruling a small territory around Höxter. Its Carolingian westwork, completed in 885, is one of the few surviving from the period.

Decline and legacy

Corvey shrank after the Thirty Years' War. In 1792 it was raised to a prince-bishopric, but in 1803 it was secularised and given to the Prince of Orange-Nassau-Fulda, then passed to Westphalia and Prussia. The poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben, author of the German national anthem, later worked in its library.