Fulda

Fulda is a city in the German state of Hesse, standing on the river of the same name, and it is the administrative seat of the Fulda district. Its history is bound up with its abbey. In 744 Saint Sturm, a disciple of Saint Boniface, founded the Benedictine monastery of Fulda as one of Boniface's outposts in the reorganization of the church in Germany, with a first grant signed by Carloman, Mayor of the Palace in Austrasia. In 751 the abbey was placed directly under the Papal See, which made it independent of bishops and worldly princes, and after Boniface was martyred by the Frisians in 754 his relics were brought back to Fulda, which raised the monastery's standing and its donations. Between 790 and 819 the community rebuilt the abbey church on the model of Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and Rabanus Maurus served as abbot from 822 to 842. The monastery school became a renowned centre of learning. In 1571 Prince-abbot Balthasar von Dernbach called in the Jesuits and pursued a Counter-Reformation policy. The city lies in the Kassel administrative region at an elevation of 261 metres and covers 104.05 square kilometres.