Imperial Abbey of Prüm

Imperial Abbey of Prüm
Fürstabtei Prüm
Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
1222–1576
Coat of arms
The Imperial Abbey of Prüm, shown within part of the Holy Roman Empire as at 1400. The largest neighbours are the Duchy of Jülich (green, north), Bishopric of Liège (purple, northwest), Duchy of Luxembourg (orange, south, labelled Herzogtum Lützelberg) and the Electorate of Trier (purple, west). Also visible is the large Electorate of the Palatinate in yellow at the southeast of the map and the Rhine — the bold black line running north–south in the east of the map.
Capital		Prüm Abbey
Government		Principality
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	First foundation	721
•	Second foundation	752 1222
•	Raised to principality	1222
•	Annexed by Trier	1576
•	Secularised by France	1794
Preceded by Succeeded by Upper Lorraine Electorate of Trier

Coat of arms

Prüm Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Prüm, Lorraine, now in the diocese of Trier (Germany), founded by the Frankish widow Bertrada and her son Charibert, Count of Laon, on 23 June 720. The first abbot was Angloardus.

Bertrada of Prüm's granddaughter was Bertrada of Laon, wife of King Pepin the Short (751–68). Prüm became the favourite monastery of the Carolingian dynasty and received large endowments and privileges. Pepin rebuilt the monastery and bestowed great estates upon it by a deed of gift dated 13 August 762. The king brought monks from Meaux under Abbot Assuerus to the monastery.

The church, dedicated to the Saviour (Salvator), was not completed until the reign of Charlemagne, and was consecrated on 26 July 799 by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne and succeeding emperors were liberal patrons of the abbey. Several of the Carolingians entered the religious life at Prüm; among these was Charlemagne's illegitimate son Pepin the Hunchback, who was exiled there after an abortive uprising and died there in 811, and Lothair I, who became a monk in 855. His grave was rediscovered in 1860; in 1874, the Emperor Wilhelm I erected a monument over it.