Benedictine nunnery Sitzenkirch

Sitzenkirch stands in the southern foothills of the Black Forest, where the gentle Markgräfler hills meet the Rhine plain. The village preserves a single relic of its past: the former Benedictine convent church, now the Evangelical parish church. Built after a fire in 1272, the building still shows its 13th-century Romanesque form. Two of its altars were consecrated in January 1277 by a Basel suffragan bishop. A fourth altar was added in 1371 through the generosity of Margrave Otto and his nephew Rudolf III.

The site is worth reaching for its layered history and the names that shaped the region. In 1120 Ida and her daughter Himmeltrudis of Kaltenbach gave the land to St Blasien Abbey, placing the nuns under the care of the provost at Bürgeln. After the convent church was rebuilt, it served as the burial place of the Hachberg-Sausenberg line of margraves. Their painted coats of arms still mark the slabs that cover Margrave Otto, Margrave Heinrich and Margrave Hugo.

Inside, the nave’s north and south walls carry five simple sandstone windows from the late 15th century. The west gallery preserves the altar donated in 1305 by Queen Agnes of Hungary. Outside, the surrounding village street keeps the memory of the old cloister, while the churchyard offers views across the vineyards to the distant Vosges.