Johanniterkommende Tobel

Commandery Tobel and Church of St. John

View of the Coming Tobel between 1706 and 1724 by Jeremias Wolff

View of the Tobel Commandery after it was rebuilt in 1747

Map of the branches of the Knightly Orders in Switzerland in the Middle Ages

The Commandery Tobel in the church today Tobel-Tägerschen in the Swiss canton Thurgau was a 1228-1809 Coming of St John . In the internal administrative order of the order, Tobel was subordinate to the Grand Priory of Germany .

history

Like that of Bubikon, the Kommende Tobel was founded in today's Canton of Zurich by the Counts of Toggenburg and, like Bubikon, is located on the pilgrimage route ( Schwabenweg ) from Konstanz to Einsiedeln . The next one was on the south-eastern edge of the old village of Tobel. According to tradition, the Stiftung der Kommende was an act of atonement by Count Diethelm I of Toggenburg for the fratricide at the neighboring Rengerswil Castle. The Heitnau and Allenwind castles also belonged to the foundation .

Together with the villages of Tobel, Tägerschen, Affeltrangen , Zezikon , Buch , Märwil , Braunau and Herten, the Coming formed the independent jurisdiction of Tobel in the County of Thurgau. It served mainly as a pilgrimage hostel. The goods of the coming were mainly in Thurgau and also included the church sets in Tobel, Affeltrangen, Märwil, Dreibrunnen , Braunau, Wuppenau , Wängi and Bussnang . During the Appenzell Wars and the Reformation , the buildings of the commander were damaged. Although the village of Tobel remained Catholic, after 1529 the order had to appoint Reformed pastors in parts of its areas and there were repeated clashes with the Reformed subjects.

In the 18th century, the long-neglected Kommende was renovated and mainly served to supply Maltese knights from the southern German nobility. In 1806 the Kommende Tobel was abolished and taken over by the Canton of Thurgau in 1809. The coat of arms of the Tobel-Tägerschen community still refers to the coat of arms of the Order of St. John.

building

The Church of the Coming was demolished in 1706 and rebuilt at its current location a little higher above the complex. Today it serves as the parish church of St. John of the Catholic parish. The keep is used as a bell tower. From 1744 to 1747 the remaining buildings of the commandery were replaced by a three-wing complex by the architect Johann Caspar Bagnato , which like most of the other buildings of the coming era has been preserved. The canton of Thurgau set up a cantonal breeding and workhouse or prison in Tobel in 1811, which existed until 1973. After its dissolution, several buildings were demolished.

Tobel Commandery Foundation

In 1991 a project by the canton of Thurgau to build a museum for peasant and village culture in the complex failed. Since 2004 the association «Komturei Tobel» has tried to use and maintain the run-down buildings in a meaningful way. In 2005, the canton of Thurgau decided to hand over the building with foundation assets of 2.9 million Swiss francs to the "Commandery Tobel" foundation. The foundation was established on March 21, 2006. In 2007 the pilgrims' hostel was able to reopen as the foundation's first project, but it has since been closed again.