Mariastern-Gwiggen Abbey

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Mariastern-Gwiggen Cistercian Abbey

The Abbey Maria Star Gwiggen (lat. Abbatia BMV de Maris Stella Gwiggen ) is an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Vorarlberg Hohenweiler and belongs to Mehrerauer Congregation . The abbey is located on a hill at the foothills of the Pfänder massif, about 10 km north of Bregenz . The abbey is dedicated to Our Lady under the attribute Star of the Sea.

Gwiggen Castle

Copper engraving of Gwiggen Castle around 1710

The former castle building of Gwiggen with the Loreto chapel dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries. The exact date of construction is not known. The farms in the Gwiggen area appeared as "Cawicca" and "Cawica" in documents between 802 and 850. In 1355 the lords of Kürenbach sold two farms "zu Gewigge" to the Ravensburg citizen Konrad von Wolfegg, who united them with the Alt-Schönstein Castle (on the edge of the Rohrach Gorge) and Neu-Schönstein (directly above Gwiggen). After the Wolfeggern, Heinrich von Schönstein (married to Klara von Lochen) became the owner of the castle in 1406. In 1433 the noble ladies' monastery of Lindau enfeoffed their son Lutz (Lucius) with Gwiggen. According to Franz Josef Waitzenegger, this contradictory situation can be explained by a more common approach at the time: a knight family (here the von Schönstein) placed themselves under the protection of a larger unit by transferring ownership (here the Lindau women's monastery ) and took over the property again as a free man. and women's fiefs. Feudal deeds were not required and instead of annual interest payments were only due for changes in ownership.

Castle from the south with Loreto Chapel

With Barten (Bartholomäus) von Schönstein, the male line died out in 1483. After the death of his widow in 1494/1495 Michael von Ems , the husband of one of Bartholomew's four sisters, should have taken over the fiefdom for the widow. During the widow's lifetime, however, the latter tried, with bribed witnesses, to present Gwiggen as the property of St. Gallen Monastery instead of the Lindau women's monastery and to have St. Gallen lend it to him in full. However, the monastery prevailed and instead gave the fiefdom to the husbands of the other three sisters. Hugo XVII. von Montfort bought Gwiggen in 1504 and passed it on to officials in his service. A large number of noble families followed as owners and feudal lords (selection: 1507 Ludwig Münzer , 1517 Hieronymus Rutkamer; 1524 Hieronymus von Furtenbach; 1555 Macharius Vogt, bailiff of Radolfszell am Untersee; 1561 Count Ulrich zu Montfort-Rothenfels , lord of Wasserburg; 1577 Haug von Hartnegg; 1589 four brothers, Counts von Montfort, Lords of Bregenz, Tettnang, Argen, Wasserburg and Peggach in Styria; 1601 Baron Anton von Fugger the Younger, Lord of Kirchberg and Weißenhorn; Hans von Schellenberg; 1608 Valentin Schmid von Wellenstein , electoral colonel in Upper and Lower Bavaria) acquired the Weißenau Gwiggen monastery until 1612 and kept it until 1649.

Castle building from the west

Colonel Caspar von Schoch (1610–1672), who emerged in imperial service during the Thirty Years' War , acquired the fiefdom from Weißenau Monastery . In 1655 he was given lower jurisdiction over Gwiggen, servants and relatives, and in the same year it was extended to the entire district of the Hohenweiler parish. His son of the same name died childless 10 years later (1682) and bequeathed the entire fortune with the castle to his wife, which she was able to enforce against the objections of the brother-in-law Freiherr Leopold von Lapierre. She then married Franz Seyfried von Thunau, who had the castle building extensively restored and the castle chapel (Loreto Chapel) added on the east side, which Konrad Ferdinand, Bishop of Tivoli and Auxiliary Bishop in Constance, consecrated in 1694 and handed over to its destination. In order to be able to free themselves from an over-indebted guarantee, Thurnau and his wife had to sell the Gwiggen property to the Lindau Abbey in 1711. In 1802 the monastery fell into the compensation fund of the German princes and Gwiggen came to the House of Habsburg. During the Napoleonic Wars it came into the possession of Bavaria in 1806 and was sold to the highest bidder, Mayor Feßler, who set up a restaurant and brewery on the property.

Four-part composite coat of arms of the abbey

Founding of a monastery

Postage stamp from the series Artworks from Abbey and Monasteries in Austria with a glass window of St. Benedict in the Mariastern Abbey

Mariastern Abbey is the successor to the three Cistercian abbeys founded in the 13th century ( Kalchrain , Feldbach and Tänikon monasteries ) in Thurgau , Switzerland , which are roughly on the geographical line of Constance and Frauenfeld. They were after the Napoleonic wars and especially in democratic liberalism of the 1830s under considerable pressure fall (recording ban on new candidates, government supervision and loss of financial self-administration, forced sales), which finally in 1848 in a decision of the Great Council of the Swiss canton Thurgau to Abolition of all Thurgau monasteries led.

After the prohibition to use the monastery church, the Kalchrain convent moved in October 1848 to the Paradies convent, which had been closed in 1836. In 1856, Prioress Ida Schäli (prioress in Paradies since 1850) acquired the Gwiggen Castle near Hohenweiler in Vorarlberg for the rest of the Kalchrain convent and the Feldbach abbess Augustina Fröhlich von Balterswil, where they gradually resumed regular monastic life after initial renovations. They received help from the mediating religious brothers of the Cistercian Abbey Wettingen, which had also been expelled from Thurgau and which had only been re-established two years earlier (1854) as the Mehrerau-Wettingen Monastery.

The eight women choirs , four lay sisters , three novices and clergymen who remained after the dissolution of the Feldbach monastery had moved with the abbess to Tänikon in 1848, to Mammern in 1853 and came to Mariastern-Gwiggen from 1861–1864. The Tänikon convent hoped for a long time to be able to return and in 1853 moved to the former Capuchin monastery in Frauenfeld, which it owned from 1862 to 1869. In 1869 he joined the nuns of Feldbach and Kalchrain who lived in Mariastern-Gwiggen (Vorarlberg). This historical reference emerges from the designation of the abbess as abbess of Kalchrain, Feldbach and Tänikon in Mariastern in Gwiggen.

Convent expansion

The Gwiggen castle estate was expanded into a monastery complex in several steps. In addition to the gate, the original castle building now contains the abbey administration and rooms for guests. The first extension consisted of an elongated monastery wing to the north with cells and a refectory . In the late 19th century, a four-sided monastery was developed based on the model of medieval Cistercian complexes, in which the existing cell wing with the added neo- romanesque chapter house represented the east wing and the large neo-Romanesque church built in 1896 the north side. A cloister was leaned against both wings and the processional way was closed on the west and south side with a wooden corridor.

The growing convent and the associated space requirements led to the addition of the south and west wings with the cells , the refectory , the library and workshops as well as a guest area in 1987 . The completed cloister encloses an inner courtyard with a fountain and the cemetery of the sisters. The former Loreto chapel in the Gwiggen castle was a pilgrimage destination until the late 18th century . In 1962 the pilgrimage tradition was resumed ( Fatima statue in the monastery church).

The then pilgrimage director of Maria Roggendorf and later Archbishop of Vienna, Hans Hermann Cardinal Groër , established the Marienfeld Monastery near Hollabrunn in 1974 with the support of the Mariastern Abbey, which sent the first eight sisters to Marienfeld as the mother monastery. The Melk Abbey turned the construction site available. The daughter of founding Marienfeld in 1982 dependent priory , 1991 independent Konventual priory and charged in 2000 to the abbey.

In 2009 the listed former stable building was converted into a multi-purpose building with a monastery shop and Agapehalle.

Monastery church

In 1895–1896, following the enclosure, first the chapter house and sacristy and then the large abbey church were built in neo-Romanesque style. The planning was done by Father Abbot Laurentius Wocher (Wettingen-Mehrerau), who died a few days before the foundation stone of the church was laid. P. Magnus Wocher, a brother of the deceased, took over the management of the new building. P. 6

According to the investigations of Sr. Marcella Kugler OCist, the construction of a three-aisled monastery church deviated from the Cistercian tradition: In the central nave you have the Feldbach hall in front of you [...] perhaps it was simply about the gallery as access to the west gallery [...] S 51 . Abbot Laurentius Wocher (Wettingen-Mehrerau) adopted the concept of the west gallery from the Maigrauge monastery church. P. 19

In 1969 the large and bright monastery and pilgrimage church underwent an extensive interior renovation that took into account the liturgical provisions of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). The 14 m high interior with its wooden ceiling now impresses with its clear, simple lines. The 22 supporting pillars were given a square shape and narrow capitals based on the model of the Romanesque church building of the Mittelzell Minster . Instead of the earlier neo-Gothic altar , a more modern apse and a folk altar made of shell limestone remind us of the Last Supper of Jesus . Pp. 8-10

Life of the sisters

The Cistercian Sisters of Mariastern are contemplative and endeavor to consecrate their lives according to the example of Mary to God through prayer and work in an atmosphere of silence and concentration. The convent consists of about 25 sisters. As the successor of the former abbess Sr. Agnes Fabianek († 2015), who went to Helfta as prioress , Hildegard Brem has been the abbess of the monastery since 2005.

In addition to the activities within the monastery, such as housekeeping, the nuns run a monastery shop and a guest house. The income from parament embroidery , laundry, carpet weaving, arts and crafts, horticulture and fruit culture, as well as scientific activities, events and the reception of guests support the economic results of the monastery. Holistic courses, both spiritual and body-oriented, are offered for women and men. Special programs are living in the monastery for women outside the enclosure , participation in choir prayer , vacation in the monastery, individual retreats , spiritual accompaniment, days of silence.

Abbesses

  • M. Ida Nicolaa Schäli 1856–1885 Prioress in Paradies since 1850/1848 Kalchrain in Paradies / 1856 Mariastern-Gwiggen
  • M. Augustina Fröhlich 1861–1871 since 1841 Feldbach / 1856 Mariastern-Gwiggen
  • M. Agatha Keller 1885–1925
  • M. Augustina Brüchle 1926-1933
  • M. Agnes Gaehwiler 1933-1957
  • M. Agnes Katzenmayer 1957-1968
  • M. Agnes Fabianek 1968-2005
  • M. Hildegard Brem since 2005

literature

  • Franz Joseph Weizenegger , Mathias Merkle (ed.): Vorarlberg, from the papers of the priest Franz Joseph Weizenegger, who died in Bregenz, Wagner'sche Buchhandlung, Innsbruck 1839 Digitized section Gwiggen from p. 318 (counts as the first printed history of Vorarlberg)
  • Sr. Marcella Kugler OCist: Convention of the Cistercian Abbeys Kalchrain-Feldbach-Tänikon united in Mariastern-Gwiggen. Mariastern-Gwiggen Cistercian Abbey - Beginnings and career in 750 years of self-publishing by Mariastern-Gwiggen Abbey, 1980
  • Hans Rudolf Sennhauser: Cistercian buildings in Switzerland. New research results in archeology and art history. Verlag der Fachvereine an der Eidgenössischen Hochschulen und Technischen, Zurich, 1990, ISBN 3-7281-1772-2 Reading sample as digitized version
  • Agnes Fabianek and Marcella Kugler: History of the Mariastern-Gwiggen Cistercian abbey: Beginnings and career in 750 years: Convent of the Cistercian abbeys in Mariastern-Gwiggen, Kalchrain, Feldbach, Tänikon. Mariastern Abbey, self-published, 1980, updated new edition in 1998 as an information brochure: History of the Mariastern-Gwiggen Cistercian Abbey . Life in the past and present , Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg, 1998, ISBN 3-931820-85-8
  • Thomas Metzler: Inspired silence. About life in the Mariastern-Gwiggen monastery. Photo tape. BUCHER Verlag, Hohenems, 2015, ISBN 978-3-99018-315-1

Web links

Commons : Mariastern-Gwiggen Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d see literature Franz Josef Waitzenegger: Vorarlberg, from the papers of the priest Franz Joseph Weizenegger, who died in Bregenz
  2. ↑ see Weblink Austria Lexicon
  3. ^ The von Furtenbach were wealthy citizens or patricians in Feldkirch and Lindau see Konrad Tyroff : Neues Adeliches Wappenwerk: Gender and coat of arms descriptions for the Tyroffischen New Adelichen Wappenwerk , Volume 13 (Google eBook) Tyroff 1805 Volume 13 p. 16
  4. ^ Thurgau; Kalchrain Measures Center ( Memento of the original dated December 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kalchrain.tg.ch
  5. ^ Maria Marcella Kugler: Feldbach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 27, 2005 , accessed June 8, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Erich Trösch: Tänikon. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 3, 2013 , accessed June 8, 2019 .
  7. ↑ see web link History of the Cistercian Abbey of Mariastern-Gwiggen
  8. ^ Entry on Marienfeld (Cistercian women) on medals online
  9. ↑ a b see literature information brochure: History of the Cistercian Abbey Mariastern-Gwiggen. Life in the past and present
  10. ↑ a b see literature Hans Rudolf Sennhauser: Zisterzienserbauten in der Schweiz
  11. ↑ Entry on brem-hildegard on medals online
  12. ↑ Helvetica Sacra; Historical representation of the dioceses, collegiate monasteries and monasteries in Switzerland

Coordinates: 47 ° 34 ′ 12 ″  N , 9 ° 46 ′ 19 ″  E