Hirsau

Hirsau's economy includes small retail establishments, tourism, and light industry. There is a saw mill on the Ernstmuhlerweg, the road that runs along the railroad in the post card pasted above. The saw mill is a long building at the upper edge (in the picture) of town.

The town has been called a "Luftkurort" ("air spa") for the purity of its air. The town's bridge over the Nagold River dates to the Carolingian period.

The town grew round the Benedictine monastery that is its main historical significance and was once among the most famous in Europe. It was founded in about 830 by Count Erlafried of Calw and re-founded, after a period of collapse, in 1059. William of Hirsau, abbot from 1069 to 1091, brought it to international prominence as the origin of the Hirsau Reforms. It was secularised in 1558, and the buildings destroyed by the French in 1692.

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  Ruins of Monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul

• Baer, 1897. Die Hirsauer Bauschule. Freiburg.
• Giseke, 1883. Die Hirschauer während des Investiturstreits. Gotha.
• Helmsdorfer, 1874. Forschungen zur Geschichte des Abts Wilhelm von Hirschau. Göttingen
• Klaiber, C.H., 1886. Das Kloster Hirschau. Tübingen.
• Steck, 1844. Das Kloster Hirschau
• Süssmann, 1903. Forschungen zur Geschichte des Klosters Hirschau. Halle.
• Weizsäcker, 1898. Führer durch die Geschichte des Klosters Hirschau. Stuttgart

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hirsau.

• (in German) Hirsau im Nagoldtal

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hirsau". Encyclopædia Britannica. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 524.