St. Benediktusberg Abbey (Vaals)
The Abbey of St. Benediktusberg is an institution of the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes . It is located in the Mamelis district of the municipality of Vaals in the Dutch province of Limburg, near the border with Germany. The monastery is a Dutch imperial monument.
history
Due to the Kulturkampf and its aftermath prevented from settling in the Kingdom of Prussia , the Sublazenser Congregation of Benedictines founded the Merkelbeek monastery, which was elevated to an abbey in 1896. From there it was then possible to establish the New Benedictine Abbey Kornelimünster and the Michelsberg Abbey in Siegburg as new settlements .
In 1920 Romuald Wolters was elected abbot in Merkelbeek, who began building Benediktusberg in 1922 and gave up Merkelbeek. In 1927 the abbey joined the Beuron congregation .
The occupation of the Netherlands in World War II led to the monks being drafted into military service and expelled from the Netherlands at the end of the war. Only one Dutch monk remained in the monastery. The buildings were first used by the American Army, then as a prison and then for Dutch displaced people from Indonesia.
From 1947, the Diocese of Roermond negotiated with Benedictine congregations about repopulation. In 1951 13 monks moved in from St. Paul's Abbey in Oosterhout and in 1964 they were elevated to the status of an abbey.
buildings
In 1922, work began on the planned four-sided complex, grouped around an inner courtyard. The architect was Dominikus Boehm in collaboration with Martin Weber . Due to the economic crisis in Germany, the monks had to stop work in 1923 before construction of a monastery church could begin. This condition remained until the abolition of the monastery.
After the new beginning of the monastery in 1951, the Benedictine and architect Hans van der Laan , who also came from Oosterhout, began completing the monastery buildings and building the church, which was consecrated in 1962. He also designed a large part of the interior. The upper church is a three-aisled basilica on a rectangular floor plan. All ships are covered with flat wood, left in a natural shade. Otherwise, the entire church interior is kept in a uniform white with gray choir and church stalls and doors. The side aisles and the choir, which is attached to the entire width of the church, are raised by one step opposite the main nave, as are the choir stalls and the altar. The lower church or crypt takes on the basic shape of the upper church, but is a hall in which the division into naves is achieved by pillars that are shaped as cuboids on a rectangular floor plan. The crypt is also kept in pure white with doors and benches in a gray tone.
literature
- Jens Nürnberger: The return of the Benedictines to the Archdiocese of Cologne after secularization and the Kulturkampf . einhard, Aachen 2014 (Publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archives , Volume 51), ISBN 9783943748208
- Holger A. Dux : Church building in the diocese of Aachen between the world wars ; in: History Association for the Diocese of Aachen: History in the Diocese of Aachen, Volume 4 . Aachen 1998, Einhard, ISBN 3-930701-44-8
- Abbey St. Benediktusberg - Vaals , Schnell, Art Guide No. 1886, Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 1991, ISBN 978-3-7954-5604-7
Web links
- Abbey of Sankt Benedictusberg , on kulturserver.de
- Saint Benedict Abbey. In: arch INFORM . (Data and brief portrait)
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ′ 5.3 " N , 5 ° 58 ′ 19.1" E