Imperial Abbey of Elchingen Reichsabtei Elchingen | |||||||||
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| 1128–1802 | |||||||||
 Map of Württemberg before the French Revolutionary Wars, showing the Free Imperial City of Ulm, separating the two parts of the Imperial Abbey of Elchingen, with the Danube shown running through the centre of the image. | |||||||||
| Status | Imperial Abbey | ||||||||
| Capital | Elchingen | ||||||||
| Common languages | Swabian | ||||||||
| Government | Elective principality | ||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Founded by Counts of Dillingen | 1128 | ||||||||
• Joined Council of Princes | 1793 | ||||||||
• Secularised to Bavaria | 1802 | ||||||||
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Elchingen Abbey (German: Kloster Elchingen, Reichsabtei Elchingen) was a Benedictine monastery in Oberelchingen (in Elchingen) in Bavaria, Germany, in the diocese of Augsburg.
For much of its history, Elchingen was one of the 40-odd self-ruling imperial abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire and, as such, was a virtually independent state that contained several villages aside from the monastery itself. At the time of its secularisation in 1802, the abbey covered 112 square kilometers and had 4000-4200 subjects.[1]