The Lohnhof

Located at a historic site, the Lohnhof has a rich history. The first church, of which only the crypt has survived, was built on the Lohnhof site around 1060/1070 in a Romanesque style. Its bishop, Burkard von Fenis, fortified the church with ramparts to protect it against attacks and sieges. Vestiges of the original site were discovered during the archaeological diggings carried out in connection with its restoration. 

In 1133/35, the chapter of Augustinian canons established a monastery with a cloister. The monastery was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1356 and restored soon after. It was rebuilt in 1492 as a late-gothic church, as it still stands today.

In the 1440s, the monastery had to defy war, famine and epidemics. At the beginning of the sixteenth-century, the spirit of the reformation dampened activities at the monastery. In 1528, the church of St. Leonhard suffered iconoclasm and turned Protestant. The chapter’s receipts were first administered by a Major Domo, who was later succeeded by a General Steward in 1668, who was in charge of the municipal works.

Named after the General Steward (German: Lohnherr), the site's name was kept when the police station was headquartered in the Lohnhof in 1821 and the old monastery was converted into a prison in 1835, which it remained until 1995.

The hotel brasserie au violon opened in 1999.