Einsiedeln Abbey

Stand still for a moment in the great square. Under your feet, the ground slopes gently upward toward the church, and the stones are worn smooth by centuries of pilgrims. Ahead of you, two pale towers rise against the sky of this high valley. If the air is cool, as it often is up here, you may smell candle wax drifting from the open doors. Welcome to Einsiedeln Abbey, one of the most important pilgrimage places in Switzerland.

The name of the town tells the first part of the story. Einsiedeln comes from an old German word for a hermit, someone who lives alone. Long before there was a monastery, a forest, or a town here, there was one man looking for silence. His name was Meinrad, a monk who came to this remote valley in the ninth century to live a life of prayer. He built a small cell and a chapel, and he stayed for many years.

Meinrad's story ends in violence, and it begins a legend. In the year 861, two robbers came to his hermitage, thinking he kept treasure. They killed him. Legend has it that two ravens Meinrad had cared for followed the murderers all the way to Zurich, crying and circling above them, until people noticed and the men were caught. Whether or not the ravens truly did this, the town has kept them. Look for two black ravens on the local coat of arms.

After Meinrad's death, other hermits came to live at his chapel. In 934, a community of Benedictine monks was formally established here. The Benedictines follow the rule of Saint Benedict, a sixth-century guide to monastic life built around prayer and work. That community has continued, with interruptions, for more than a thousand years. Monks still live, pray, and work inside these walls today. You are not visiting a museum. You are visiting a home.

Now look at the building itself. The church and monastery you see were built in the eighteenth century, between 1719 and 1735, in the Baroque style. Baroque is a style of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that uses curves, movement, gold, and light to create emotion. The plan came from a monk of the abbey, Brother Caspar Moosbrugger, who was also an architect. Notice how the long facade curves outward in the middle, as if it is reaching toward the square to greet you.

Before you go inside, turn to the fountain in the square. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and it has fourteen spouts arranged around a basin, beneath a golden statue. Locals say that pilgrims should drink from every one of the fourteen spouts. One popular explanation links the custom to an old belief that Meinrad himself once drank here. Nobody can prove it. But on a busy day you will see people moving slowly around the fountain, cup by cup, spout by spout.

When you step through the doors, your eyes need a moment. The light changes completely. Outside it was grey stone and open sky. Inside, there is white, pink, and gold, and the ceilings are covered with painted heavens. Much of this decoration is the work of the Asam brothers, two Bavarian artists. One brother was a painter of frescoes, and the other was a sculptor working in stucco, a soft plaster that hardens into detailed shapes. Together they made the ceiling feel open to the sky.

Here is something many visitors miss at first. Right in the middle of the nave, near the entrance, stands a separate small building inside the church. It is made of dark marble, and it looks almost like a jewellery box placed on the floor. This is the Chapel of Grace. It stands on the spot where, by tradition, Meinrad's own little chapel once stood. The whole enormous church was built around it, like a shell around a pearl.

Inside the Chapel of Grace is the reason most pilgrims come. It is a statue of Mary holding the infant Jesus, known as the Black Madonna. The figure is carved from wood and dates from the late Middle Ages. Her face and hands are dark. A common explanation is that centuries of candle smoke and soot slowly darkened the wood. When the statue was later restored, the dark colour was kept, because by then people loved her that way.

Look closely at her clothing. The Madonna does not wear one fixed robe. She has a large collection of embroidered garments, and they are changed through the year, following the feasts and seasons of the Church calendar. Some were gifts from pilgrims and noble families. So if you come back another season, she may look quite different. It is a small, human detail that makes this statue feel cared for, almost like a member of the family.

The abbey has also lived through hard times. In 1798, French revolutionary troops occupied the region. Soldiers destroyed the old Chapel of Grace, and the monks fled. But the statue was not lost. It had been taken away and hidden before the soldiers arrived, and it travelled in secret for several years. Only later did it return to Einsiedeln. The marble chapel you see today was rebuilt afterward, in the early nineteenth century, in a calmer, more classical style.

If your timing is right, stay for the evening. After the monks finish their evening prayer, they walk in procession to the Chapel of Grace and sing the Salve Regina, an old Latin hymn to Mary. Their voices fill the huge space, and the gold seems to glow in the low light. It is free of performance and spectacle. It is simply the daily rhythm of the community. Many visitors say this short moment is what they remember most.

Beyond the church, the monastery keeps other traditions. The monks have a long history of breeding horses, and the Einsiedeln horse is one of the oldest documented horse breeds in Switzerland. The abbey also runs a school and keeps a historic library. In the town below, bakeries sell a local biscuit called Schafbock, a spiced honey biscuit pilgrims have carried home for generations. Taste one, and you are taking part in a very old habit.

Before you leave, walk back out into the square and turn around. Look at the towers again, now that you know what is inside. A hermit's single room. A hidden statue that came home. A song that is sung again tonight, as it was last night. Listen for the bells, and for the water running from the fourteen spouts. Then take your time walking down the slope... the same way pilgrims have walked for a thousand years.