Murbach

Murbach lies in a valley at the foot of the Vosges in southern Alsace. Its Benedictine abbey, founded in 727, became a religious house with extensive lands and political authority. Granted imperial immediacy in 1228, it retained the status of a principality in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries even as its influence declined. In 1515 the humanist Beatus Rhenanus found a manuscript of Velleius Paterculus's Roman History in its library. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia reserved Murbach to the Holy Roman Empire, but France acquired effective control in 1680. Around 1759 the community moved to Guebwiller and became a collegiate chapter for nobles. The abbey was dissolved during the Revolution in 1789.