Monastic Island of Reicheneau - UNESCO: World Heritage

ever only with the renovation of the minster at Mittelzell
and the discovery of the frescos at Ober- and Niederzell in
1880 and 1890, did the Reichenau draw the attention of
middle-class intellectuals and artists. The Grand Duke and
his guests became regular visitors to the island. Villas were
build on the southern shore.
Artists of the Academies of Karlsruhe and Stuttgart discovered
the extraordinary quality of the light, i. e. the harmonizing
effect the water-filled air has upon colour. Spending
summer on the island of Reichenau became an alternative
for travels to Holland or Venice. A kind of an artist’s colony
developed on the island of Reichenau, at first the summer,
but, particularly in the period following World War I, a number
of artists moved over to the island permanently. The
island’s landscape, its churches and fishermen’s houses became
the subject of numerous naturalistic, impressionistic
or secessionist paintings of the first half of the 20 th century.
The crisis in wine-growing in the late 19 th and early 20 th
century made the Reichenau farmers change to growing fruit
and vegetables. In 1928 the first green-houses were built.
Today there are about 120 farms run by farmers and their
families who earn their living by agriculture alone. In recent
decades great efforts have been made to intensify the
growing of vegetables, for example a co-operative organization,
marketing through a central market, the construction
of an overhead sprinkling system, a reallocation of land and
an extension of the green-house areas to 50 hectares. In
spite of a relatively small area of only 250 hectares under
cultivation, the annual production of fresh vegetables
amounts to 18,000 tons. The vinyards, which once dominated
the island, today again embrace 15 hectares. The fish
breeding institution, built in 1927 and extended in recent
years, has helped maintain and even increase the stock of
fish in the Untersee (Lower Lake). There are still about 20
professional fishermen living on the island of Reichenau
today. For many families tourism has become an important
economic factor. Appropriate refurbishment of the winegrowers’
and fishermen’s houses and improvements in infrastructure
also characterize the present appearance of the
island.
24