The Salem Monastery Ponds – A Cistercian Legacy

Starting at the monastery

The walk through the landscape of the Salem monastery ponds begins at car park 2 at Kloster und Schloss Salem. The monastery holds the key to understanding the history of these waters: water supplied the community, irrigated its gardens and powered mills. The Cistercians and their lay brothers channelled streams into canals, combining agriculture, crafts and fish farming into a sophisticated economic system. Its traces extend well beyond the monastery grounds.

Hills and hollows

The surrounding countryside owes its shape primarily to the Ice Age. Glaciers left behind elongated hills known as drumlins. Between these hills, many of which are now wooded, lie flatter meadows and fields. The hollows offered the monks suitable conditions for collecting water and creating ponds. Here, 2 stories overlap: the formation of the landscape by ice and its later reshaping through monastic use.

The ponds form part of an interconnected water system. Channels link several of them. Around 1800, the Salem area had 24 fish ponds, more than half of them in the immediate vicinity of the monastery. Fish played an important part in the monks’ diet, as the rules of their order forbade them from eating the meat of 4-legged animals. Pond farming made it possible to plan their food supply.

Waterside habitats

Alongside their history of human use, the Salem monastery ponds also have ecological significance. They are designated as a European Special Protection Area for birds. Open water, reedbeds and adjoining grassland provide a variety of habitats. The management plan records little grebes, black-necked grebes and red-crested pochards among the breeding birds; water rails and great reed warblers have also been recorded in the reedbeds.

This adds another dimension to the Cistercian legacy: the waters created to supply the monastery also serve as breeding and resting sites in the hinterland of Lake Constance. Fish farming, water engineering and nature conservation together shape the character of this landscape.