Nienburg Monastery

Nienburg Abbey, aerial photo (2017)

Monastery church St. Marien and St. Cyprian, west tower with portal

Portal of the monastery church Nienburg

Monastery church of St. Marien and St. Cyprian, side wing with church window

The Nienburg monastery was a Benedictine monastery in Nienburg an der Saale in the Salzlandkreis , Saxony-Anhalt , to which the monastery church of St. Marien and St. Cyprian belongs.

The Nienburg monastery church is an early Gothic hall church with Romanesque components, the main components of which date from the 13th century. It is one of the earliest Gothic hall churches in Central Germany and has a harmonious, light interior. It is a stop on the Romanesque Road .

history

The "New Castle" (= Nienburg) was built on the site between 930 and 950. With the aim of evangelizing the then Sorbian population of the region , the Benedictine abbey, founded in Thankmarsfelde in the Harz Mountains in 970, was relocated to the fort in 975 . The renovation work took over 30 years.

It was not until August 8, 1004 that the previous building of the monastery church, which has been preserved until today, was consecrated in the presence of King Henry II , who was on a campaign against the Poles . At the same time, the city received market and coinage rights. The monastery was declared an imperial monastery by Emperor Otto II . It soon developed into one of the wealthiest monasteries in the region. Numerous possessions and places belonged to the monastery, including Harzgerode , Niemitsch and Lübben . However, they were isolated and scattered between the Harz Mountains and the Lusatian Neisse . In 1115, Sorbs rebels threatened the area of the Nienburg monastery for the last time.

Around 1073, Count Adalbert (von Ballenstedt), the grandfather of Albrecht the Bear , made several donations to the monastery. In 1166, Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa transferred the Nienburg Abbey and Freckleben Castle to the Archdiocese of Magdeburg in exchange for its possessions on the Rhine - Schönburg Castle, the village of Oberwesel and the Jugenheim court. As a result, after ultimately unsuccessful resistance, Margrave Albrecht the Bear of Brandenburg had to take his bailiwick, which had previously been a fief of the Reich, over the Nienburg monastery from the Magdeburg archbishop. There was a bitter dispute between Albrecht's grandson, Prince Heinrich von Anhalt, and the Nienburg abbots, which ended in 1239 with a curtailment of the bailiff's rights.

As a result of the Reformation and the Peasant Wars , the monastery was handed over to the princes of Anhalt-Köthen in 1563 , who rebuilt the cloister building from 1680 to 1690 in order to use it as a castle and widow's residence. The widowed Princess of Anhalt-Köthen, Gisela Agnes von Rath (1669–1740), lived here as Countess of Nienburg . In 1711 she founded the Noble Ladies' Foundation, later called Gisela-Agnes-Stift . Formally under her reign, but financed by her son Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen , the court orchestra of Schloss Köthen was founded in 1714 , mainly from members of the Berlin court orchestra, which had been dissolved the previous year. The first Kapellmeister was the opera composer Augustin Reinhard Stricker , who was replaced three years later in 1717 by Johann Sebastian Bach .

In 1871 the castle was sold to an industrialist who converted the building into a malt factory . In 1996, parts of it were destroyed in a fire caused by children playing.

Varia

67 volumes from the monastery library, including a parchment manuscript from the 10th century, were transferred to the library of the St. Bartholomäi Abbey in Zerbst / Anhalt in 1567, and with this to the Francisceum library in 1803 .

literature

Udo Lorenz: The late Romanesque decorative floor from the former Benedictine monastery church in Nienburg an der Saale. Dissertation to obtain the academic degree Dr. phil., University of Leipzig, 1986/1990, 140 pages, A4 format. Available as a reading copy for visitors to the monastery church.
Erich Vogel: Chronicle of the Nienburg Monastery, part 2 1004 to 1563 (brochure of the Evangelical Church Congregation St. Johannis and St. Marien and Catholic Church Congregation St. Nicolaus), Nienburg / Saale