Hautvillers Abbey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abbey church

The abbey Hautvillers , full name "Saint Pierre d'Hautvillers", is a former Benedictine - monastery in the village of Hautvillers in the department of Marne in the Champagne in northern France, about 7 km from Epernay and 20km from Reims Station. It is often referred to as the birthplace of champagne .

history

Archbishop Nivard von Reims founded the monastery around 650/662, making it one of the oldest Benedictine monasteries in the world. A dove is said to have shown him the place where he should build a monastery according to the rules of Saints Benedict and Columban . Nivard's successor as Archbishop of Reims, Rieul , entered Hautvillers as a monk in 669 . Gottschalk von Orbais († 869), persecuted relentlessly by Rabanus Maurus and Hinkmar von Reims for his radical conception of the so-called "gemina praedestinatio" - the double predestination (predestination) of God, spent the last twenty years of his life in Hautvillers in strict custody .

The monastery was destroyed and rebuilt a total of seven times in the course of its history. So it was z. B. Devastated by the Normans in 882 and burned down by the English in 1449. After being destroyed again in 1564 during the Huguenot Wars , it was restored with the financial support of Catherine de Medici . The last visitation occurred during the French Revolution . A list of his abbots has not been preserved.

Carolingian book illumination in the Bernese Physiologus

In the 9th century, the monastery was an important scriptorium and center of illumination , the so-called Reims School, from which the Ebo Gospels (today in the Bibliothèque Municipale of Epernay) and the extraordinary Utrecht Psalter (since 1732 in the University Library of Utrecht ) his 167 wonderful pen illustrations come from. However, some researchers are of the opinion that these two creations were the work of a group of eight illuminators who were only temporarily assembled in Hautvillers by Archbishop Ebo of Reims . The Bern Physiologus was created here around 830 .

Birthplace of champagne

Monument Dom Perignon

The abbey also had the reputation of an excellent wine producer, which was consolidated in the late 17th century after the transfer of the monk Pierre Pérignon, called Dom Pérignon (around 1638-1715), from a monastery near Verdun to Saint Pierre d'Hautvillers. Dom Pérignon was cellarer and cellar master there from 1668 until his death . He was the first to blend wines from different locations into a cuvée and was instrumental in developing the " Méthode champenoise ", a process of bottle fermentation for the production of sparkling wine , but probably not inventing it. The art of white pressing red grape varieties goes back to him .

Todays use

After the French Revolution , many goods that had initially been confiscated were sold to bring money into the state treasury. These included the former Hautvillers Abbey, which was bought by Jean-Remy Moët in 1794 along with the surrounding vineyards. He turned it into a winery that is still owned by the company that was renamed Moët & Chandon in 1832 . There is a wine museum in the winery.

Abbey church

All that remains of the former monastery is the Saint-Sidulphe abbey church, renovated in the 17th century, with its 17th and 18th century monks' choir, interesting paneling, choir stalls and paintings, including two works from the workshop of Philippe de Champaigne . A candlestick made of the four wheels of a wine press hangs above the main altar . In the church there is the tombstone of Dom Perignons.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So z. B. Lawrence Nees: On Carolingian book painters: The Ottoboni Gospels and its Transfiguration Master . In: The Art Bulletin , June 2001.

literature

  • Francois Morel: The Most Beautiful Wine Villages of France . Sterling Publishing, 2005, pp. 12-13 ISBN 1845331435
  • Utrecht Psalter . In the original format of manuscript 32 from the property of the Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht library. 2 volumes. Graz: Akad. Druck- u. Publishing company (Codices selecti phototypice impressi), 1982–1984. Volume 1: Complete facsimile edition, 216 pages, 1982; Volume 2: Commentary by Koert van der Horst, translated from the Dutch by Johannes Rathofer, 108 pages, 1982. ISBN 3-201-01207-6
  • Koert van der Horst (Ed.): The Utrecht Psalter in medieval art: picturing the psalms of David . [... Published in conjunction with the exhibition Het Utrecht Psalter. Middeleeuwse meesterwerken rond een beroemd manuscript Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, August 31 - November 17, 1996] MS't Goy-Houten 1996. ISBN 90-6194-328-0 , ISBN 90-6194-318-3

Web links

Coordinates: 49 ° 4 ′ 55 "  N , 3 ° 56 ′ 28.4"  E