Kloster Baldegg — Local services in Hochdorf

Work by noted modernist Marcel Breuer:

As tradition was in Switzerland, the Sisters had an architectural competition for their new motherhouse, comprising local architects. Their stated program was for "simple, clear, uncompromising architecture in which the Franciscan spirit is expressed; it must therefore be modern architecture through which the character of the house will be realized."

After 2 competitions resulted in no satisfactory designs, the local advisory architect suggested they contact international architect Marcel Breuer (who had offices in NYC & Paris), based on his widely lauded work on the Saint John’s Church in Collegeville, Minnesota, and (more on-point) the Annunciation Priory in Bismarck, North Dakota. The Sisters agreed and the result does bear relation to the layout of the Annunciation Priory — arranged to optimize the heavily organized daily routine of the convent, though the exterior shows more of his career use of repeating concrete forms.

The four-story, u-shaped infirmary and home for elderly sisters, connected to the southeast corner, was commissioned soon afterward and also...

I come here every year on holidays and a spiritual retreat. I do not know what people may want. For me here I can learn more about myself, recharge my batteries and be myself....

Sehr freundliche Schwestern, wir wurden sehr herzlich begrüsst und umsorgt. Unsere Pilgerunterkunft war ausgestattet wie ein Hotel und wir haben eine sehr ruhige Nacht dort verbracht, das Frühstück hatte alles was man braucht, frisches Brot, guten Kaffee und das zu einem fairen Preis....