St. Anna (Schwabelsberg)

St. Anna is a former church in Schwabelsberg, a village in Kempten, Swabia. It stands beside the Schwabelsberger Weiher, a small pond. The building was converted in the 1950s into farm buildings and flats. It is protected as a listed monument. The church’s story begins in 1518 when the local castle was bought by Prince-Abbot Rudolf von Raitnau. In 1537 the castle briefly housed Franciscan nuns from the St Anna convent. Around 1658 Prince-Abbot Roman Giel von Gielsberg had the castle turned into a monastery by architect Johann Serro. The choir was vaulted and a new tower added for the church. After the Thirty Years War the convent moved back to Kempten in 1674. Prince-Abbot Engelbert von Syrgenstein later rebuilt the chapel. Today only the south-facing nave survives along the road to Heiligkreuz. The north wall still shows its round-arched door between circular windows and three blank round arches below the gable. Inside, a large fresco of God the Father with cherubs sits in a stucco frame at the vault’s crown. The fresco dates from the 1660s and is attributed to Andreas Asper, a painter working at the same time in Kempten’s St Lorenz collegiate church. A blocked round-arched passage and traces of a possible tower base remain. The nave’s vaulted ceiling and former gallery space survive beneath later ceilings.