The Roggenburg monastery church is one of the most important rococo buildings in Swabia. It was in construc-tion from 1752 to 1758, having been begun by Simpert Kramer and finished by his son Martin Kramer. The design of the church is in the form a cross with a length of 70 m, a width of 35 m, and a height of 28 m.

 

The very artistic roof timbering was made by Johann Brutscher. The high church construction has no façade. According to the customs of the order the church is inte-grated into the monastery building, with an entrance from the side. The single-nave church has two 70m-high steeples with seven churchbells, some of which are 500 years old. Two rows of windows provide the church with a flood of light, allowing the bright rococo decoration to prevail. The stucco work may have been done by artists from Wessobrunn. Franz Marin Kuen painted the original frescoes, but they were destroyed in 1845 when the ceiling tumbled down; in 1900, however, the Bavarian state had the frescoes restored, imitating the original model. The large roof fresco shows a Christmas scene, as do almost all churches of the Order of the Canons Regular of Prémontré, as the Order was founded on Christmas Day in 1121. Kuen also painted the altarpiece of the main altar, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and the six side altars with the following themes: the Birth of Jesus, the Holy Family, St Norbert before the Holy of Holies, the family of Canons, and the Descent from the Cross.

 

The imposing statues at the main altar, St Augustine on the left and the patron saint of the order, St John the Baptist, on the right, were carved by Anton Sturm. The important statues of the cross altar, located in the middle of the Church, and the two altars in the cross, were all carved by Christoph Rodt in 1628 and came from the previous church, as did the choir stalls, decorated with 13 small busts of the twelve apostles and Jesus on the left side, and 13 holy women on the right. In all, there are 50 seats for the canons. In the pulpit stands a statue of St Norbert holding a monstrance and a cross, and standing atop a heretic.

 

The grand rococo organ construction provides the church with an excellent finish in the west transept. With its approxiproximately 3550 pipes and 58 stops, the five-manual organ is excellent for concerts. Sound effects such as the glockenspiel, bird-twittering, hail, and many others, further enhance the sound spectrum, producing an ever fuller harmony.