The Comburg (; also Grosscomburg) is a former Benedictine monastery near Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. History In 1078, Burkhardt II, , donated his family's ancestral castle, on a hill overlooking the Kocher river and the town of Schwäbisch Hall, to the Benedictine Order for the establishment of an abbey and joined the order. The Counts of Rothenburg-Comburg, who also owned Hall and its salt flats, became the vögte of the abbey until their family became extinct in the early 12th century. Their possessions were inherited by the House of Hohenstaufen, remained the protectors of the monastery until it transferred authority over the Comburg to the now Free Imperial City of Schwäbisch Hall in 1348. Not long after its founding, the Comburg became associated with Hirsau Abbey and in 1086 integrated the Hirsau Reforms. As a result, it received several portions of donated land from which it began to flourish. Under its third abbot, Hertwig of Hirsau, the Comburg reached the apex of its fortunes in the early 13th century, operating a scriptorium and possibly a metal foundry on its grounds. In the 14th century, however, the Comburg faced economic downturn and began to borrow money, occasionally being obliged to pledge its treasures as collateral. These difficulties were to be longlasting; from the 13th to the 15th centuries, the parishes of , , Gebsattel, Künzelsau, and were not served by monks. From the beginning of the 14th century, the monks of the Comburg came from the gentry of Schwäbisch Hall and from the mid-15th century Franconian noble families. The Bishop of Würzburg assumed temporal responsibility for the Comburg in 1485 and, three years later, transformed the Comburg into a collegiate church that would only admit nobles. This close connection with Würzburg allowed the Comburg to survive the Reformation and retain its properties. The monks of the Comburg also maintained close ties to Ellwangen Abbey. Secularization As a part of the Napoleonic during the process of German mediatization, the Comburg and its estates were divided between the Electorate of Württemberg and the Electorate of Bavaria in 1802. Württemberg was awarded almost all of Comburg's remaining properties and the Comburg itself, which was subsequently secularized. Frederick I, Elector of Württemberg, ordered the monastery's treasure to be melted down at the royal mint in Ludwigsburg. The monastery's library was moved to the State Library in Stuttgart. From 1807 to 1810, the Comburg was the residence