Franziskanerkloster Schwaz

The Franciscan monastery in Schwaz stands in the old mining town of Schwaz in the Austrian Alps. Founded in 1507 by local miners and merchants with the support of Emperor Maximilian I, it became one of the region’s most important religious centres. The first friars had already visited Schwaz in 1471, but only after securing land from Hans Fieger von Melans and overcoming objections from the local parish did the permanent monastery take shape. The Fieger family donated their house with its spiral staircase tower, which still forms part of the monastery today.

The monastery is worth visiting for its early 16th-century architecture and the stories behind its construction. Within months of the foundation stone being laid, the Bonaventure Chapel was completed and consecrated in 1509, serving as the community’s church until the main building was ready. The friars honoured their many lay supporters by painting their coats of arms on the vaulting keystones, while Emperor Maximilian’s lands were also represented. The monastery belonged first to the Viennese Franciscan province and from 1580 to the newly formed Tyrolean province under the patronage of Saint Leopold.

Visitors find a well-preserved late-Gothic complex arranged around a quiet cloister. The Bonaventure Chapel still shows its original small-paned windows, and the old refectory retains its timber panelling and a grand chandelier once intended for Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The garden once held a chapel and a weaving house, while the large linden tree on the church square has stood since at least 1699. The brothers’ day room above the refectory, with its massive ceiling beams, and the unchanged sacristy give a sense of how the friars have lived here for more than five centuries.