Magerau Abbey
| Magerau Abbey Abbaye de la Maigrauge |
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.jpg) Cistercian Abbey of Magerau |
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| Data | ||
| place | Friborg | |
| Construction year | from 1255 | |
| Coordinates | 578 581 / 183209 | |
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The Magerau Abbey ( French : Abbaye de la Maigrauge ; Latin Abbatia BMV de Macraugia ) is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1255 in Friborg in the Üechtland in the Swiss canton of Friborg . The founding deed is dated July 3, 1255, on parchment 17 × 7 cm in size. In it, a sister Rinchinza von Burcard, pastor of Tafers , is allowed to lead a prayer life according to the Rule of St. Benedict together with other pious women.
The monastery is located on the Saane and on the border between German- and French-speaking Switzerland , which at that time was the outermost western border of the parish. The community is bilingual and runs a host bakery and a guest house open to everyone, an organic garden and a monastery shop, in which an elixir made from medicinal herbs (so-called green water ) is sold. It was the first and until the 17th century also the only women's monastery in Freiburg.
main building
Plan of the monastery (No. 4) with surroundings from 1777
Information board
organ
history
In 1259 the land of the Mageren Au was donated to the small community by the city master Hartmann V, the younger, von Kiburg. In 1261 the Cistercian order admitted them - contrary to the Pope's order of 1251 that the order should no longer accept any further women's convents (which the order itself had asked for) - and the community was placed under the care of the nearby Abbey of Hauterive . Approx. The monastery church is consecrated in 1284. It was rebuilt in Gothic style in the mid-14th century and the choir stalls , which were added towards the end of the 14th century, still exist today. The most important art treasure of the abbey, the Easter tomb , an almost life-size wooden figure of the dead Christ in a painted, hinged wooden coffin , also dates from the 14th century . In the monastery, this has been replaced by a true-to-original copy since August 2009; the original is in the Museum of Art and History . After this first heyday, the monastery was not brought to any great wealth: Despite donations and dowries from the sisters who entered, in the 15th century there was repeated poverty thanks to bad harvests, storms, floods and too many poor novices. In 1518 the abbess was even deposed. The Reformation in the 16th century did not leave the Magerau untouched either: in 1602 the sisters demanded a return to the original rule with strict observance of abstinence, which is not observed either in Cîtaux or in the German congregation to which they belong. In the greatest heyday of the monastery during the Counter-Reformation, the 45 sisters now sign a document in 1625, which is now kept in the monastery, in which they undertake to strictly adhere to the rule in all its purity, so much more than just z. B. renouncing meat. This period was also shaped by two important abbesses: Anne Techtermann (1607–1654) renovated the structure of the monastery inside and out. Her successor, the mystic Anne-Elisabeth Gottrau (1654–1657), was a versatile woman of deep spirituality. In 1660, a self-inflicted fire largely destroyed the monastery complex, cells, cloister and dining room of the abbey, which was largely made of wood, were destroyed, as were most of the supplies. The church, chapter house and abbess house, like some other stone parts of the building, have been preserved. Reconstruction takes place in the second half of the 17th century. The French Revolution and Helvetica did little damage to the monastery, and a planned merger with the La Fille-Dieu monastery was averted. Abbess Bernadine Castella (1838 to 1849) had to cede all goods to the state when she was expropriated by the radical Freiburg government in 1848. The monastery was also not allowed to accept novices until 1857 , which amounted to a death sentence for the abbey. In France the order is completely wiped out, Hauterive is dissolved, so that the monastery was completely left to its own devices. The monastery has belonged to the Mehrerau congregation since 1901 . Abbess M. Jeanne Comte (1915–1954) encouraged paid homework, which slowly recovered the monastery. When Abbess Gertrud Schaller took office in 1974, the first renovations began step by step:
- 1982–1984 renovation of the church
- 2004 the guest house
- 2005 the former abbess house
in addition, the hospital staff, various adjustments in the convent and many of the roofs and sewer systems. Marianne Zürcher has been Gertrud Schaller's successor as abbess since 2011.
Web links
- Homepage of the monastery
- Entry to Magerau Abbey on Orden online
Individual evidence
- ^ Page of the abbey on its history
- ↑ Convent and Order Lexicon on Orden Online
- ↑ "Maigrauge - new abbess" , Orden Online, June 16, 2011