Abbey Church of the Assumption (Oberschönenfeld)
The Abbey Church of the Assumption is the center of the Cistercian monastery Oberschönenfeld near Gessertshausen in the Augsburg district in Swabia . The monastery complex and the church were restored between 1976 and 1995 and are now a popular destination for the population of the nearby city of Augsburg .
Building history
The first abbey church was consecrated on September 24, 1262. In 1298 the church already had five altars. In 1430 a new Marienkapelle was consecrated on the north side of the lay room. A new high altar and an altar in the nuns' choir were built around 1510 under Abbess Margaretha Vetter . The associated panel paintings by Hans Holbein the Elder. Ä. are now in the Staatsgalerie Augsburg.
This new building began in 1721 with the demolition of the old church. In autumn of this year, a large part of the outer walls was already in place, a year later the shell was completed. The construction management was entrusted to the Vorarlberg master Franz Beer II (von Blaichten). Beer created an elongated church space that is divided into six sections by retracted pillars and the vaults. On July 25, 1723, the new building could be consecrated. In the following years the bars in front of the nuns choir and a new organ were added. Under the Abbess Charitas Karner (1767–74), a large-scale renovation began in 1768 in the Rococo style , which defines the interior of the monastery church to this day. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the old church was rebuilt and refurbished several times. In 1612 , for example, the nuns' choir received new choir stalls , which could later be incorporated into the new baroque building.
After the secularization of the monastery (1803), the church was threatened with demolition, but the Cistercian women were still allowed to live in the convent building. From 1815, however, the church again served as a cult building. In 1836 King Ludwig I approved the continued existence of the monastery, but it was not until 1899 that the monastery and church again came into possession. The resumption in the Cistercian order had already taken place a year earlier. In 1918, King Ludwig III. Oberschönenfeld returned to the abbey, the papal confirmation took place in 1922.
Major restoration work was carried out in 1904, 1953/57 and 1959. In the course of the general renovation of the entire complex, the abbey church was also extensively renovated between 1976 and 1995. After parts of the stucco decoration on the ceiling came loose in November 2010, further work was to be done, which could be completed at the end of 2012.
architecture
The western part of the church is integrated into the north wing of the monastery area, the front half protrudes to the east over the convent building. The sacred building is 43 m long, the nave without the cross arms is 13 m wide. The exterior appears rather simple. The edges of the building are accentuated by offset plastering blocks , and the high arched windows are framed by drilled rough plaster fields. What is striking is the lack of a base. The simple saddle roof was hipped over the eastern intermediate yoke, the roofs over the choir and the cross arms are slightly lower than the nave roof.
The tower with its onion dome stands south over the cloister next to the church. The two upper floors with their beveled corners protrude slightly above a five-story substructure. The main portal leads into the church next to the north cross arm. A profiled archivolt is crowned by a blown triangular gable above the sandstone frame made of field pilasters . An oval cartouche encloses an abbess coat of arms, the year 1722 and the letters MAHAZOS (M. Anna Hildegard Abbatissa zu Oberschönenfeld).
The master builder Franz Beer combined the “Vorarlberg scheme” “with a rhythmic alternation of transverse barrels and centralized domed rooms” (inventory volume) in the room architecture. In the east is the chancel, followed by a narrow side altar yoke, then the domed main room with the cross arms. The main room and the nuns' choir are separated by a narrow entrance yoke. A gallery yoke closes off the room behind the dome of the nuns choir.
Furnishing
The sparse stucco decoration was created in two stages. The small, highly oval medallions with leaf fronds over the choir windows, the picture cartouches over the nave windows, the clock in the western main yoke and some other stucco made of leaf sticks, tendrils and twigs still date from the construction period. The rococo forms from around 1768/69 consist of vases, putti and clouds on the pilaster beams. The fully plastic sculptures are white, gold or colored (painted). A rocaille cartouche with the coat of arms of the abbess Charitas Karner is worked out above the choir arch . The ceiling paintings were also carried out under Charitas Karner. The high quality works are the work of the Augsburg masters Joseph Mages and Johann Joseph Anton Huber. The “Adoration of the Lamb by the twenty-four elders” can be seen in the chancel. In the main yoke of the lay church, the Holy Family stands in front of a splendid temple ruin, which the shepherds are approaching. The vaults of the cross arms bear two scenes from the legend of St. Bernhard. In the dome of the main western yoke, Jesus is depicted before the high priest. The wall paintings with the emblematic representations probably date from around 1723, the apostles and the brocade painting probably by Joseph Mages.
Adoration of the Shepherds
Annunciation of Mary
Adoration of the Lamb
Jesus in the temple
The five altars were built in 1770/71. The figurative decoration points in the direction of the Verhelst brothers from Augsburg. The altar leaf of the high altar shows the Assumption of Mary and is signed at the bottom with "Joseph Hartmann" (Augsburg). The high altar and the two side altars show roughly the same structure, made up of Corinthian pilasters and a pair of outwardly sloping columns. The altars in the cross arms were worked a little later, but can be assigned to the same master. The pulpit was also added around 1770 . The angel heads on the bellied basket are neo-baroque, as is the altar in the nuns choir.
The nuns' choir itself is separated from the lay room by a rich, wrought iron grille on an intermediate wall. In the middle, a tin medallion shows the coat of arms and the initials of Abbess Victoria Farget and the year 1736, which is repeated below in iron. On the long sides of the nun's choir, the remarkable Renaissance stalls of the previous church have been preserved. The two-row furniture with its post-Gothic style elements is labeled "1612" and is said to be based on the model of the former (no longer existing) choir stalls of the Kaisheim monastery church near Donauwörth .
The communion grille made of wrought iron (around 1770) consists of ten parts with baluster-shaped ornaments and rocaille cartouches with coats of arms and the initials CAZK (Cölestin Abbas zu Kaisheim) and CAZOS (Charitas Abbatissa zu Oberschönenfeld), the winged angel heads above the cartouches bear a miter and crown. The openwork wooden grilles on the two sick choirs above the sacristy were made around 1770. The lattice of the hospital gallery in the nuns' choir was built around 1725, the richly structured latticework of the organ gallery with its stars and rosettes around 1740.
The Stations of the Cross by the Augsburg painter Gottfried Bernhard Goetz (1752) are particularly striking. The 15 stations are framed by lush rocailles frames. A life-size crucifixion group opposite the entrance is dated to 1720/30. There are also some Gothic wooden figures to be noted, such as a late Gothic Mother of God from around 1490 and a High Gothic grave Christ from the middle of the 14th century.
The four grave monuments made of Solnhof limestone all belong to the 19th century and are reminiscent of three master brewers (including one female master brewer) and a forester.
literature
- Norbert Lieb: Cistercian abbey church Oberschönenfeld. Munich / Zurich 1952. (Schnell & Steiner Art Guide, No. 575)
- Wilhelm Neu, Frank Otten: District of Augsburg. Munich 1970. (Bavarian art monuments, short inventory XXX)
- Werner Schiedermair (Ed.): Oberschönenfeld Monastery. Donauwörth 1995, ISBN 3-403-02578-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Michael Petzet: Monuments in Bavaria: Swabia . Oldenbourg, 1986, ISBN 978-3-486-52398-0 ( google.de [accessed on May 22, 2019]).
- ^ Yearbook of the Association for the History of the Augsburg Diocese e. V. Verlag des Verein für Augsburg Bishopric History., 2006 ( google.de [accessed on May 22, 2019]).
- ↑ The Fallen Angel Returns Newspaper report from May 15, 2012.
- ↑ An angel with a Christmas message. Newspaper report from December 10, 2012.
- ↑ Cornelia Kemp: Applied Emblematics in South German Baroque Churches . Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1981, ISBN 978-3-422-00725-3 ( google.de [accessed on May 22, 2019]).
Coordinates: 48 ° 18 '43.9 " N , 10 ° 43' 36.9" E