Einsiedeln

Meinrad von Einsiedeln (ca. 797-861), educated at the abbey school on Reichenau Island, established a hermitage in the dense 'Dark Forest' at the site of present-day Einsiedeln in 828. He lived there for over 25 years, accompanied by two tame ravens that he hand-fed. On January 21, 861, two robbers named Richard and Peter murdered him. According to legend, Meinrad's two loyal ravens pursued the murderers to Zurich, squawking and attacking them until townspeople captured the criminals, who were sentenced to death by burning. The two ravens became the symbol of Einsiedeln and appear on the coat of arms of both the abbey and the town.

On September 14, 948, Bishop Konrad of Constance traveled to Einsiedeln to consecrate the newly built chapel. According to legend, as the bishop prepared the rite, he experienced a miraculous vision: Christ himself descended, accompanied by the Virgin Mary, angels led by Archangel Michael, the apostles, and saints including Peter and Gregory the Great. A voice declared: 'Stop, brother! The chapel has already been consecrated by God himself.' This 'angelic consecration' (Engelweihe) was confirmed by a papal bull in 964 and became the cornerstone of Einsiedeln's identity as a pilgrimage destination. The Engelweihe is celebrated every year on September 14 with a spectacular illumination of the church and monastery.

The Schwarze Madonna (Black Madonna) of Einsiedeln is a late Gothic figure carved from linden wood, standing 117 cm tall, created between 1440 and 1465. The statue arrived at the Chapel of Grace in summer 1466, replacing an earlier image destroyed in the monastery fire of April 21, 1465. The statue's face and hands were originally painted with natural flesh tones but darkened over centuries from candle and lamp soot. In 1799, during the French invasion, the monks hid the Madonna -- first in the Alpthal valley, then buried underground at the Haggenegg pass, before smuggling it to Vorarlberg, Austria. The dampness from burial damaged the wood. During restoration in autumn 1799, painter Johann Adam Fuetscher officially painted the skin fully black -- the appearance maintained ever since. The Madonna wears one of 27 ornate vestments changed according to the liturgical season.

Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus, was born on November 10, 1493 in Einsiedeln -- in a house beside the Teufelsbruecke (Devil's Bridge) over the river Sihl. His father Wilhelm von Hohenheim was a physician and botanist; his mother Elsa Ochsner was a native of Einsiedeln and a bondswoman of Einsiedeln Abbey who worked as superintendent in the abbey's hospital. After his mother's early death, the family moved to Villach (Carinthia) around 1502. Paracelsus is considered the father of toxicology, famously stating: 'All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so that a thing is not a poison.' He pioneered chemistry in medicine, coined the word 'alcohol', and named the element zinc.

The Sihlsee is an artificial lake created in 1937 by damming the river Sihl -- Switzerland's largest reservoir by surface area (10.72 km2). Maximum length is 8.5 km, width 2.5 km; the concrete dam is 33 meters high and 124 meters long. Construction required the relocation of 1,762 residents and submerged 107 farms. The idea of a reservoir was first proposed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during a visit in 1797, though it took nearly 140 years to realize. The lake feeds the Etzelwerk hydroelectric power station at Altendorf on Lake Zurich; water drops 483 meters through a tunnel from the Sihlsee (889 m) to Lake Zurich (406 m). Today the Sihlsee is a popular recreation area with sailing and boat tours on the MS Angelika.

The two ravens became the symbol of Einsiedeln: they appear on the coat of arms of both the abbey (two black ravens on a gold field) and the town (two ravens on a red field), and are depicted throughout the monastery -- including on either side of the pulpit. After Meinrad's death in 861, his hermitage was never without at least one hermit for the next 80 years. In 934, Eberhard, previously Provost of Strasbourg, together with Benno, organized the hermits into a Benedictine monastery under the Rule of Saint Benedict. The abbey grew to become one of the most important Benedictine monasteries in the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland's largest pilgrimage site, attracting approximately 800,000 visitors annually.

Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681), the Spanish Baroque playwright, wrote 'El gran teatro del mundo' in the 1630s -- an allegorical mystery play where God assigns roles to human characters. In 1917, a local scientist discovered that the Klosterplatz had exceptional acoustics for outdoor theater. In 1924, the first performance took place on the abbey square, launching a tradition spanning 100 years. Performances involve approximately 500 participants: about 250 amateur actors from the village and 250 behind-the-scenes workers -- a community-wide social project spanning generations. Since 2000, contemporary Swiss authors have reinterpreted the play: Thomas Huerlimann for 2000 and 2007, Lukas Baerfuss for 2024. The monastery square is described as Europe's second-largest church forecourt after St. Peter's Square in Rome.

Before becoming the great Protestant Reformer at Zurich's Grossmuenster, Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) served as secular priest (Leutpriester) at Einsiedeln from 1516 to 1518. His chief duty was preaching at this major pilgrimage destination. At Einsiedeln, Zwingli studied Holy Scripture, copied the Epistles of St. Paul, and taught himself Hebrew. He already began preaching against pilgrimages, indulgences, and aspects of the old faith while still at Einsiedeln -- sowing the seeds of the Swiss Reformation. In late 1518, he was called to Zurich as Leutpriester of the Grossmuenster, where the Reformation would officially begin.