Gleink Benedictine Abbey

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East view of the monastery
South view of the monastery building
South view of the rectory

The Gleink Benedictine Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in the Upper Austrian town of Steyr .

history

Benedictine monastery

The Benedictine monastery Gleink was built in the 1st quarter of the 12th century, soon after the foundation of the Garsten Abbey , from the Bamberg feudal castle Glunich (Glunik). The founders Arnhalm I and his son Bruno from the Gleink-Volkersdorf ministerial family , whose employers, the Styrian Otakare , co-founded the monastery, had the fortress redesigned into a monastery building. The monastery complex dedicated to the Apostle Andreas already existed around 1120.

Gleink was a subsidiary of Garsten Abbey, from which the first abbot Ulrich came. Ulrich was a relative of Saint Berthold von Garsten , the first abbot of Garsten Abbey. Later the parishes Dietach (with the branch church Stadlkirchen ) and Haidershofen (with the branch church Burg) were incorporated.

The Romanesque monastery building was damaged by fires in 1220, 1275 and 1313. As early as the 13th century and until the end of the Middle Ages, the abbots had to wage a constant struggle to secure the gifts and rights granted to the monastery. After the troubled times of the wars with the Hungarians , who built a bridge over the Enns near Ernsthofen in 1485 and built entrenchments on both sides of the river under Wilhelm Tettauer , the monastery flourished under Abbot Gregor Grand (1504–1520) before the religious split. His successor Thomas Amfeldt (1520–1539) had to watch how Turkish cavalry from the Kasimsbeg patrol corps devastated the area of ​​Gleink and Dietach in September 1532.

Due to the political, economic and religious conditions in the first half of the 17th century, especially the looting in the Peasants' War in 1626, the monastery got into a great emergency, from which it was only the abbots Cölestin Pestaluz (1658–1678) and Rupert I. von Kimpflern (1678–1708) brought them out again. It was under these abbots that the great baroque construction period began for Gleink, which ended under Abbot Rupert II Freysauf von Neudegg (1709–1735).

Andreas von Schwandtner (1735–1762) ruled as the penultimate abbot. In 1762, Wolfgang Holmayr, a professor at the University of Salzburg who was born in Steyr and is famous as a preacher, was elected abbot. As Wolfgang III. the pen until it is canceled.

After 1784

In the course of the church reforms of Emperor Joseph II , Gleink was secularized on May 21, 1784. The pastoral care in Gleink was taken over by world priests, and the monastery buildings were temporarily used as barracks. In 1791 Gleink was donated to the newly created diocese of Linz , whose bishops liked to use Gleink as a summer residence.

At the instigation of Bishop Gregor Thomas Ziegler , Salesian women came to Gleink from Vienna in 1832. Their monastery had up to 70 sisters in its heyday. From around 1950 onwards there were no more entries, so in 1977 it was finally dissolved.

In 1950 the Order of the Sacred Heart Missionaries took over the parish pastoral care and until 1990 also ran a Caritas home, a dreaded education home for boys.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of Gleink shows a three-leaf clover on a green mountain in the red field.

building

Building history

Gleink Monastery after an engraving by Georg Matthäus Vischer from 1674

The overall impression of the monastery is a product of the great monastic building movement of the Austrian Baroque in the second half of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century. Three periods are particularly striking in this church building.

  • The first period is the Romanesque : two altars were consecrated in 1223, and the consecration of the church is mentioned in 1273. The core structure of the basilica , transeptless nave, with the exception of the eastern yoke , apparently belongs to this period . The latter expands trapezoidally to form a broad Gothic choir. The proportions of the nave (width to height) are relatively steep, they are in a ratio of 1: 2. Originally, the floor plan was probably designed in a bound system with two square central nave bays. It is uncertain whether the square west tower, which corresponds to the width of the south aisle, contains Romanesque core walls.
  • The second construction phase is that of the Gothic , in 1436 another church consecration with all altars and chapels is mentioned. There was a complete Gothic conversion of the nave and the new building of the choir. From the Gothicization of the nave, the points of Gothic windows in the central nave above the baroque vaults in the eastern half and the points of attachment of Gothic vaults in the western half have been preserved. The core walls of the choir with the buttresses and the top of a richly profiled window also go back to the 15th century.
  • The baroque period begins in the middle of the 17th century. Abbot Augustin Kausler (1648–1658) initiated a restoration of the interior of the church, which is attested by plastering surfaces and a lancing cap barrel above the current vault. During the reign of Abbots Cölestin Pestaluz (1658 1678) and Rupert I von Kimpflern (1678–1708), the church received its present-day appearance. Under the abbot mentioned last, the church tower was also raised (43 m high with an onion helmet). Abbot Rupert II. Freysauf von Neudegg (1709–1735) was responsible for the final work: in 1709 the church was painted, the portal was added in 1714 and the organ in 1732.

The penultimate restoration of the church was completed in 1954. Between 1981 and 1994 a general renovation of the church and monastery buildings was carried out (with interruptions).

description

The former monastery church, parish church since 1784 , is dedicated to the Apostle Andreas . The three-aisled, five-bay pillar basilica has a one-bay choir. The frescoes on all the vaults are originally the work of Johann Georg Daller from 1708/09, but they were disfigured by overpainting by the Steyr painter and restorer Anton Stern 1884–1886. The last two restorations have restored them as well as possible.

The main courtyard of the monastery building is rectangular and completely closed. The church tower is located on its long side in the middle. The former two-bay prelate chapel in the south wing has a barrel vault and bears the date 1684 on the lintel. The stucco decoration is the work of Giovanni Battista Carlone, who also worked in Garsten .

The interesting monastery garden of the monastery is generally known as the "dwarf garden".

Until 1785 there was also a church dedicated to the apostle and evangelist Matthew from 1349 near the monastery. This church in the village of Stein was, however, a branch church of the Steyr parish , which was used by beneficiaries (world priests) and Dominicans of the monastery in Steyr ( Marienkirche) was cared for.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gleink Benedictine Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Gleinck in the Topographia Austriacarum (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otakar, Margrave of Styria, certifies the foundation of the Gleink monastery by the noble Arnhalm and his son Bruno on their estate Glunik . In:  Upper Austrian document book . Volume 2, No. CXI, Steyr, 1125, p. 165.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i History. In: dioezese-linz.at. Retrieved June 27, 2020 .
  3. ↑ 150 ex-pupils want money from the Church of Salzburg News August 11, 2017

Coordinates: 48 ° 4 ′ 3 ″  N , 14 ° 24 ′ 53 ″  E