Abbaye du Thoronet
| Abbaye du Thoronet | |
|---|---|
 View of the monastery church |
|
| location |
 France
|
| Coordinates: | 43 ° 27 '37 " N , 6 ° 15' 50" E |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
97 |
| founding year | 1146 |
| Mother monastery | Mazan Monastery |
| Primary Abbey | Citeaux monastery |
The Abbaye du Thoronet is a former Cistercian monastery and is located 4.5 kilometers west of Le Thoronet , a small town in the hinterland of the Var department , north of Le Luc , between Carcès and Lorgues near the Argens river . The Abbaye du Thoronet, together with Sénanque and Silvacane, forms the group of famous Cistercian monasteries in Provence , known as the "three Provencal sisters".
history
In 1136 a group of Cistercian monks left the Abbey Mazan Abbey in Ardèche and built the Notre-Dame-de-Florièges (also: Florielle or Florièyes ) monastery near Tourtour . Just 15 years later, the brothers left the temporary buildings there and settled around 20 km away at their current location near Lorgues in a remote, wooded valley on a small river. In 1160 construction began on the church, which - as is customary with the Cistercians - was consecrated to Mary , the Mother of God . 15 years later the most important buildings were completed. In 1190 the last work could be finished.
Foundations and donations helped the monastery to grow rapidly. At the beginning of the 13th century there were around 20 monks and a few dozen lay brothers living in the abbey. A new refectory was built in the 15th century , but the decline began a short time later. Various sources give evidence that as a result, the abbey buildings were in a precarious state at the end of the 17th century. Substantial alterations were made in the 18th century. The church received a stucco decoration that significantly changed the original overall impression.
In 1790, at the beginning of the French Revolution , 7 monks lived in the abbey, which was dissolved in the course of secularization . In 1854 the French state acquired the abbey. Efforts to restore the buildings have been ongoing since 1873. All subsequent additions and modifications were removed and the original condition was preserved for posterity.
architecture
A strict and very geometric Romanesque style prevails in all parts of the building . The basilica structure of the nave and the transept are clearly visible from the outside. There is no ornament in the form of arched friezes or pilaster strips . In the simple entrance facade, instead of a main portal, two small side doors open under round arches . On the south wall of the church one of the rare burial arch niches of Provence can be seen, which is carved into the wall from the outside. The tower is unusual: to emphasize the simplicity, it is usually dispensed with in Cistercian churches. Most abbey churches only have a small roof turret .
Inside, the broad main nave , flanked by significantly narrower aisles, is made up of three bays . Although the nave does not have an upper aisle , the church is bright. The choir ends in an apse with a semi-dome above. The three windows symbolize the divine trinity . To the right and left of the main apse there are two side chapels. In contrast to most Cistercian churches, these do not have a square floor plan, but a round end. From the outside, however, the usual impression is preserved by a straight closing brickwork.
The transept is lower and narrower than the main nave. Thus a crossing in the strict sense is missing ; the barrel vault of the main nave extends to the choir wall. The pillars of the main nave, which form a level with the arcade wall and are reminiscent of Roman aqueducts, are interesting . Inside, the original rood screen , which clearly separated the areas of the priestly monks and the lay brothers, is missing today .
Even within the church there is almost no sculptural ornamentation, underscoring the Cistercian striving for a simplicity that focuses on the essentials, worship and prayer. The acoustics in the church are exceptionally good.
Not only in the church, but also in almost all other buildings in the abbey, from the dormitory to the cellar, there are almost exclusively barrel vaults. One of the few exceptions is the ribbed vault in the chapter house . The monks met here every morning to hear a chapter from the Rule of Saint Benedict and to discuss important issues. It is the only room that has already been influenced by the Gothic . The pointed arches rest on two central pillars, the two-row capitals of which are adorned with water leaves, pine cones , palm trees and a hand holding a bishop's staff. The lowest rib stones are knocked out of a block using an elaborate technique.
Behind the chapter house there is a simple passage to the garden. It served as a parlarium - besides the chapter house, the only room in which the monks were allowed to speak to one another. Immediately to the north, a staircase led up to the dormitory . A monk slept under every window opening; the sleeping places are still indicated today by stone slabs.
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The monastery buildings are grouped around the (terrain-related) trapezoidal cloister . Deviating from the norm, it is located north of the church, is rather simple, but unusually large with an edge length of 37 m. The thickness of the walls with their round arches and double arcades , the simple oculus that breaks through their gables , the capitals, where no ornamentation distracts from the clear line, invite inner reflection.
The south wing of the cloister was probably built almost at the same time as the monastery church; Like this one, it is vaulted with a round barrel, whereas the other three wings already have a pointed barrel. The belt arches that support the vaults rest on block-like consoles . In the north-east and north-west corners, on the other hand, you can find ribbed vaults, which indicates that these parts of the building were built later.
The well house, from which the monks got their drinking and washing water, is located opposite the door of the refectory in a hexagonal pavilion with a dome. The inner edges are covered by six square pointed arches. In the middle there is a bowl with 16 openings from which the water flows into the larger, lower basin. In the wall opposite the fountain house, the entrances to the refectory, kitchen and warm room can still be seen, which unfortunately only have their foundations.
In the pantry, the monks prepared the wine and olive oil, the abbey's main sources of income. Wine vats from the 18th century can still be found there today. Opposite them is an oil press. In the barrel vault of the pantry you can see ventilation chimneys that were necessary to prevent the accumulation of alcohol vapors.
The building of the lay brothers adjoining to the north (as in all Cistercian monasteries, the areas of the monks and lay brothers were separated from each other not only in the abbey church, but also in other areas of life), in which the portal vestibule is also located, contained a three-bay dining room on the ground floor and one Dormitory on the 1st floor. On the north wall of this room you come across a door that led to the latrines (located directly above the stream flowing by) .
The abbey cemetery is to the east behind the church choir. The strict poverty law of the order meant that the dead were placed directly in the ground in a white cloth without a coffin and tombstone.
rating
The art historian Wolfgang Braunfels describes this architecture of stone as follows: “Stone always looks more durable than wood or plaster, stricter and at the same time stronger. One gets the impression that the monks locked themselves up in these vaults for a long time. Nothing can be moved here. It is both a dungeon and a paradise. In the stone world that Cistercian aesthetic unfolded that led to Gothic. Where color and figure were forbidden, stone treatment pushed for new perfection. The simplicity and geometric clarity of the form are elevated to the ideal. "()
In his novel “Singende Steine” ( French: Les pierres sauvages , 1964), the French architect Fernand Pouillon described the building history of the abbey from the point of view of the (fictional) master builder Wilhelm Balz. His work is based on his own investigations on this structure.
literature
- Carsten Fleischhauer: The architecture of the Cistercians in Provence. Sénanque - Le Thoronet - Silvacane (= Cologne architecture studies. Vol. 77, ISSN 0940-7812 ). 2nd, revised edition. Art History Institute, Department of Architectural History, Cologne 2006 (At the same time: Cologne, University, dissertation, 2002).
- Lucien Hervé : Architecture of Truth. The Cistercian Abbey of LeThoronet. Phaidon, Berlin et al. 2001, ISBN 0-7148-9202-5 .
- Fernand Pouillon : Singing Stones. The records of Wilhelm Balz, master builder of the Cistercian monastery Le Thoronet (= dtv 12684). Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-12685-X .
- Henry Bauchau : la pierre sans shagrin . Actes Sud, Arles 2001 (therein: Poèmes du Thoronet, pp. 9-36).
swell
- ↑ cf. Rolf Toman (Ed.): Provence. Art, landscape, architecture . hfullmann publishing, Königswinter 2009, ISBN 978-3-8331-5580-2 , p. 297 .
- ↑ cf. Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Romanesque. Architecture, sculpture, painting . Könemann, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-89508-213-9 , p. 173 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Braunfels : Western monastery architecture . 5th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7701-0294-0 , pp. 122 .
