Kremsmünster Abbey
| Benedictine Abbey Kremsmünster | |
|---|---|
 Kremsmünster Abbey from the northeast |
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| location | Traunviertel , Upper Austria |
| Lies in the diocese | Diocese of Linz |
| Coordinates: | 48 ° 3 '16.2 " N , 14 ° 7' 44.3" E |
| Patronage | Salvator Mundi ( World Savior ) & Agapitus from Praeneste |
| founding year | 777 by Bavarian Duke Tassilo III. |
| Congregation | Austrian Benedictine Congregation |
The Kremsmünster Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in Upper Austria . It has been a spiritual and economic center of the region since its founding in 777 . The monastery is also known for its observatory ( mathematical tower from 1750) and its high school .
history
The monastery was founded in 777 by the Bavarian Duke Tassilo III. founded. According to legend, Tassilo's son, Gunther, is said to have been attacked and killed by a boar while on a hunt. The foundation of the monastery served to promote the inland colonization in the wooded Traungau , which was populated by Bavarians and Slavs . Slavs had cleared some areas in the ducal forest of Dietach , Sierning and Eberstalzell , and Tassilo gave them to the monastery as a donation . There were also other scattered possessions of the duke. First abbot became Fater , previously the duke's chaplain . When it was founded on November 9, 777, Bishop Virgil of Salzburg , Bishop Simpert of Regensburg , Bishop Waldrich of Passau and the abbots of Mondsee (Oportunus), Niederalteich (Wolfperth), Schlehdorf ( Atto ) and Chiemsee (Gaozrih and Hrodhart) took part ) part. The Bavarian aristocrats included the Counts Utih, Megilo, Salucho and Reginold, Adalker and Hertnid, who were among Tassilo's entourage. Theodo III, too . , the already anointed son of Tassilos, approved the charter; this was his first official act as the presumptive successor to his father.
An important chronicler of the monastery is Berchtold von Kremsmünster (* before 1270, † after 1326), who wrote the "Historia Cremifanensis" and the "Narratio de ecclesia Cremsmunstrensi".
From the middle of the 17th century, an extensive system was built using older components, which, along with Melk Abbey, is one of the largest in Austria. Among the builders were Carlo Antonio Carlone (collegiate church, imperial hall, library, Fischkalter) and Jakob Prandtauer (farmhouses in the outer collegiate courtyard, reconstruction of the Fischkalter), who also designed the monastery church in Melk.
The Kremsmünster building complex has its greatest extension in the approximately 290 meter long south wing. There are important representative rooms: refectory , library and imperial hall. The south wing is closed off in the east by the 51 meter high mathematical tower , in which the Kremsmünster observatory is located. This tower is considered to be one of the first high-rise buildings in Austria.
Monastic community
46 monks are currently serving in the monastery, as well as in 27 parishes , an expositur and a chaplaincy in the area or in Barreiras , one of the poorest areas in Brazil. Ambros Ebhart has been the abbot of Kremsmünster Abbey since 2007 , and Father Maximilian Bergmayr has been his prior since 2013.
The daily routine of the monks is characterized by prayer, work and intellectual debate in the form of scripture reading, meditation and study:
- 6:00 Laudes in the chapter room (exam)
- 6:30 am Convent mass in the Michaelskapelle
- 7:00 am for contemplation, breakfast, then work
- 12:00 third , sixth , non in the collegiate church, then lunch, possibly afternoon rest, followed by work
- 18:00 Vespers in the Marienkapelle, followed by dinner
- 19:00 Compline , Vigil , then rest for the night
In addition to the prayer times, each confrere should devote himself to meditation or spiritual reading during the day . During the Kartage there is the possibility of a temporary monastery for men .
Mission in Barreiras
Confreres of the monastery have been working in the Diocese of Barreiras in Brazil since 1970 . In addition to the parish and pastoral care tasks, they put through numerous social projects such as old people's homes, kindergartens, medical outpatient clinics, agricultural schools or street children projects. Father Richard Weberberger was appointed the first bishop of the newly established diocese. He performed this service until his death on August 17, 2010.
Monastery building
Collegiate church
The collegiate church was consecrated to the world savior from the beginning . Later (perhaps at the inauguration of the new building in 1082) the patronage of St. Agapitus from Praeneste to it. After several previous buildings had been destroyed by fire, construction of today's church began in 1232. In 1277 Abbot Friedrich von Aich was able to inaugurate the nave on the five hundredth anniversary of the foundation; until the completion of the Gothic church (towers) passed another 200 years.
The church has been baroque in several phases since the beginning of the 17th century and thus permanently changed. While Abbot Anton Wolfradt mainly restricted the reconstruction of the choir room, the church was subjected to a comprehensive Baroque transformation from the 1670s under the direction of Carlone, Giovanni Battista Colomba and Giovanni Battista Barberini (1625–1691). First of all, the chancel domes that were erected in the early 17th century were removed and the entire interior was covered with stucco work, for which Giovanni Battista Colomba and Giovanni Battista Barberini were responsible. The west facade of the church from 1681 comes from the latter. The Grabenberger brothers from Krems , from whom Michael Christoph distinguished himself , were able to be won over for the interior frescoes depicting scenes from the Old Testament . This second phase of Baroqueization was completed after twelve years of work.
The redesign of the collegiate church was completed under Abbot Alexander Strasser (1709–1731). In this third phase fall the high altar painting and the tabernacle, the pulpit, the wide staircase leading up to the presbytery and the side altars. Particularly noteworthy are the marble baroque angels by Johann Michael Zürn the Younger , kneeling and standing next to the numerous side altars, impressive examples of the Austrian Baroque. The collegiate church of St. Agapitus has considerable dimensions. It is 78 meters long and 21 meters wide. The main nave is 18 meters high, the side aisles are 12 meters high.
Church facade prelate court
Nave with organ gallery
Nave with choir
High altar
Ceiling fresco
Tapestry
Tapestry
High altar
The high altar picture (top right) was painted by Andreas Wolff on a 6.3 × 3.8 meter canvas in twelve years of work until 1712 . This masterpiece by the Munich court painter depicts Christ in the Transfiguration: He has risen from the ground, his face shines like the sun, his garment like snow, Moses and Elijah crowd him from the right, an innumerable large and small angels surround him, while God the Father smiles down from above.
The Bavarian court painter presented the topic of the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor , which is particularly important for Catholic theology . In the lower part of the picture lie the three disciples Peter , James and John , above them the representatives of the Old Covenant, Moses and Elijah, appear next to Christ. The heavy gold-plated copper frame is held by angels of average quality by Josef Anton Pfaffinger (1714).
Grids separate the choir from the nave. The middle one was forged by Valentin Hofmann in 1718, the sides were made by Hans Walz from 1616 to 1618.
Tassilo chalice
The Tassilo chalice , which is kept in the treasury, is probably the most famous and precious work of art in the monastery; the chalice was around 780 by Duke Tassilo III. and his wife Liutberga , possibly on the occasion of the founding of Kremsmünster in 777.
tabernacle
The magnificent tabernacle forms the base of the high altar painting. It was made in 1715, possibly based on a design by Jakob Prandtauer. The door is decorated with an Immaculata by Johann Urban Remele : In this context, Maria is to be understood as the Golden House of the Lauretan Litany .
Pulpit and tapestries
Further important pieces of equipment of the main nave are the pulpit by Urban Remele (1713) with the oil painting Paulus as preacher by Karl von Reslfeld and the Flemish tapestries that used to clothe the stucco coats of the pillars on festive days. They show scenes from Joseph's novella in the Book of Genesis and come from the Reydams' Brussels workshop, where they were woven towards the end of the 17th century.
Side altars
The two altar leaves in the side choirs are by Daniel Seiter , who was born in Vienna and worked mainly in Rome and Turin. Like Reslfeld, he, too, comes from the school of Karl Loth (Carlotto) and used what is perhaps the sharpest and most bizarre light and dark manner of the Austrian early baroque. On the left sheet he interprets the martyrdom of St. Candida (Fig.) , Whose relics have been kept in Kremsmünster since 1677, and on the right that of St. Agapitus (Fig.) , Whose remains were given to the monastery by King Arnulf as early as the end of the 9th century.
Gunther's grave
In the southern tower chapel of the collegiate church is the famous grave of Gunther, son of Tassilos III. The Gunther grave, a cenotaph made of white Nagelfluh, is crowned by a cover plate with the figure of the dead Gunthers and is located in the bell house of the collegiate church. The cover plate dates from before 1304 and represents Gunther, the legendary son of the Bavarian Duke Tassilo III. who, according to the founding legend of the Kremsmünsterer Stift, was fatally wounded by a wild boar while hunting in the forests on the Krems. The boar, with a lance in his body, and the hunting dog Gunther, who is said to have tracked him down, rest at the feet of the Gunther, who is resting on a pillow and wrapped in Romanesque tubular garb. The strong color scheme, which is well preserved, is particularly noteworthy.
organ
The organ of the collegiate church dates from 2005 and was built by the Upper Austrian organ building institute Kögler (in St. Florian ). The instrument has 45 registers on three manuals and a pedal .
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"Mathematical Tower" observatory
The Kremsmünster observatory is considered the first high-rise in Europe, built between 1749 and 1758. It has a height of about 51 meters. In contrast to often much higher church towers , it was much more difficult to build because of the six load-bearing mezzanines. With this construction, designed for good observation conditions, it is one of the world's oldest observatories. Some well-known astronomers and at times up to 3 priests worked as observers .
Around 1930 the observations from the observatory dome (7th floor) were moved to the garden for various reasons, where a large meridian house was built. In the basement there is a fundamental station for gravimetry operated by the University of Vienna .
A science museum has long been housed in four of the upper floors and was modernized in 1977 for the 1200th anniversary of the monastery. The collections range from physics and astronomy to geology and biology to ethnology . They clearly show the development of scientific research over almost a quarter of a millennium.
In the "Wetterkammerl" meteorological observations have been made since 1763 , and since 1767 there has been continuous temperature recording to this day. Kremsmünster is the only weather station in the world to have a series of measurements over 240 years that has never been interrupted by a change of location.
Fish cold
The Fischkalter includes five magnificent water basins in which fish farming is carried out. It was built by Carlone (1690–1692) and Prandtauer (1717). The pools are surrounded by colonnades, the arcades of which are supported by 78 Roman-Tuscan columns. The statues that serve as the water supply come from Andreas Götzinger and Johann Baptist Spaz. They represent Samson, David, Neptune, Triton, the apostle Peter and the blind helper Tobias.
Pen library
The Kremsmünster Abbey Library is one of the largest and oldest in Austria. The magnificent hall is 65 m long and houses around 160,000 volumes; The collection also includes numerous manuscripts and incunabula. The best-known manuscript is the Codex Millenarius (maior) from around 800. A list of the holdings from 1500 is available on the Internet. The library also has over thirty manuscripts that Johannes Seld de Leubs donated to the monastery in 1440/41. In addition to theological texts, there is also a copy of the “abstract glossary”, which is important for linguistic research.
Topographia Austriacarum ( Matthäus Merian , 1679)
Monastery library
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Stiftsgymnasium
The humanistic-modern language grammar school located in the monastery imparts general education and basic humanistic-Christian attitudes. The former monastery school of Kremsmünster Abbey has been a school for the public since 1549.
Baroque summer house
A curiosity of the baroque way of life is the garden house in the oriental style from 1642, the so-called “mosque” , which was built under Abbot Boniface Negele , with a crescent moon on the central dome. The south gallery offers a good view over the Kremstal.
The fig house from 1638/40 with the roof that was formerly removable is the oldest preserved orangery greenhouse in Austria . In 2017 it was converted back from a residential building to its original purpose for the state horticultural show.
Garden shed
Middle part of the garden house
Fig house 2018
Ecumenical Summer Academy
Every year since 1999, the three-day “Ecumenical Summer Academy” has been held in the Kremsmünster Abbey during the first Upper Austrian summer vacation week. It faces a current topic that is being examined by scientists from various disciplines and theologians.
Meeting point Benedict
The “Benedict Meeting Point” has been taking place in the monastery every month since 2008. The framework includes lectures, Christian-spiritual offers and regular events. Up to 150 young people attend the event initiated by Father Bernhard Eckerstorfer and Abbot Ambros Ebhart . On August 8, 2012, Vatican Radio reported on the meeting point Benedict. Pope Francis mentioned him during an audience on September 4, 2013
Goethe centre
Since autumn 2007, Herbert Zeman and Benno Wintersteller arranged for the monastery to house the Goethe Center and is therefore the seat of the Austrian Goethe Society. The company's holdings (four original hand drawings by the poet, autographs by Goethe, Hofmannsthal and other writers, a scientifically valuable library and other museum items) are not only intended to supplement the collections of the monastery, but also to be used as a research facility.
Business and Finance
- The winery in Kremsmünster Abbey is one of the most traditional wineries in Austria. The winery currently covers around 40 hectares with locations in the Wachau, Kremstal and Central Burgenland. The vineyards are leased - against lease in kind. On average, around 2000 hectoliters are marketed each year.
- Kremsmünster Abbey is one of the largest forest owners in Austria. The forestry has a total area of 9800 hectares, of which 5200 hectares are forest. The rest is wasteland, this is the northern mountain drop in the area of the Almsee . The forest operation is divided into five districts, which extend over 20 political communities from north to south, from Pucking to Grünau and east to west, from Oberschlierbach to Kirchham . Hunting and fishing are assigned to the forest enterprise. The fishing waters include the Almsee, part of the Alm River and the Krems River . From 1627 to 1848 the Kremsegg Castle also belonged to the monastery.
- In the monastery gardening u. a. Flowers, herbs, seasonal vegetables, organic fruit juices, decorations and arrangements are produced and sold.
- The Stiftsschank has been leased to Harald and Georg Pettermann since January 2013.
- Monastery shop
In 2012, Kremsmünster Abbey received around EUR 140,500 from EU agricultural funding from funding programs and direct payments .
Abbey parish churches
- Parish and pilgrimage church Adlwang
- Allhaming parish church
- Parish Church Bad Hall
- Parish church Eggendorf in the Traunkreis
- Fischlham parish church
- Parish church Kematen on the Krems
- Parish church Neuhofen an der Krems
- Parish church parish churches near Bad Hall
- Parish church in Ried im Traunkreis
- Parish church in Rohr im Kremstal
- Sattledt parish church
- Sipbachzell parish church
Cases of abuse
Numerous cases of abuse in boarding and grammar schools in 2008 and 2010 led to police investigations against several fathers who had worked as teachers and educators in the 1970-2000s. The main perpetrator and former Konviktdirektor P. Alfons ( August Mandorfer ) resigned from the order in March 2012 after a canonical procedure and in April 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. been laicized. In January 2015, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison by the Linz Higher Regional Court for the proven abuse of 24 former pupils. Two further fathers were sentenced to internal conditions after a canonical process that was concluded at the end of 2013. On March 27, 2015, a scientific study carried out by the Munich Institute for Practical Research (IPP) under the direction of social psychologist Heiner Keupp on the subject of "Sexualized, psychological and physical violence in the Konvikt and grammar school of the Benedictine Abbey Kremsmünster" was presented, in which a total of 16 violent and 8 pediatric criminals were recorded. Since September 2014, a memorial plaque in the high school course has also been commemorating the former students of the collegiate high school who were affected by the forms of violence mentioned above .
literature
- Altman Kellner : Music history of the Kremsmünster monastery , Kassel and Basel 1956
- Albert Bruckmayr, Rudolf Walter Litschel, Erich Widder : Kremsmünster. 1200 years of the Benedictine Abbey , Upper Austrian State Publishing House, Linz 1976.
- Hauke Fill: Catalog of the manuscripts of the Benedictine monastery Kremsmünster . Part 1: From the beginning to the time of Abbot Friedrich v. Aich (approx. 800-1325) . Part 2 .: Zimeliencodices and late medieval manuscripts after 1325 up to and including CC 100 , Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaft, Vienna 1984–2000, ISBN 3-7001-0598-3 (volume 1), ISBN 3-7001-2767-7 (volume 2).
- Friedrich Mayer: Kremsmünster in its educational establishments. 1892 ( 79 p. Digitized version and PDF ).
- Roland Girtler : The old monastery school. A world of austerity and little rebels . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2000, ISBN 3-205-99231-8 . (The sociologist describes his experience and influence at the collegiate high school in the 1950s).
- Rudolf Flotzinger : Kremsmünster. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3045-7 .
Franz Bock : The Tassilo chalice and candlesticks at Kremsmünster in messages from the emperors. royal Central Commission for the Research and Conservation of Architectural Monuments Volume 2, 1857.Web links
- Kremsmünster Abbey website. In: stift-kremsmuenster.net. Retrieved December 28, 2017 .
- Kremsmünster Abbey High School. In: stift-kremsmuenster.at. Retrieved July 11, 2020 .
- Altkremsmünsterer - Kremsmünsterer Association. Association of the graduates of the public collegiate high school of the Benedictines in Kremsmünster. In: altkremsmuensterer.at. Retrieved December 28, 2017 .
- Winery
- Coat of arms in Kremsmünster Abbey on World-of-Arms: Coat of arms of the abbots of Kremsmünster
- Stiftsschank
- Kremsmünster blog
- Kremsmünster Forum
Individual evidence
- ↑ Document: Documents (777-1894) 0777-0778 (digitized version of the founding document handed down in the Codex Lonsdorfianus . In: Oberösterreichisches Urkundenbuch . Volume 2, Vienna 1856, p. 2.) in the European document archive Monasterium.net .
- ^ Joachim Jahn : Ducatus Baiuvariorum: The Bavarian Duchy of the Agilolfinger. P. 519ff. (= Monographs on the history of the Middle Ages). Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-7772-9108-0 .
- ↑ Mönche , Kremsmünster Abbey, accessed on January 30, 2019.
- ^ Kremsmünster - disposition of the new organ. In: orgelbau-koegler.at. Retrieved December 12, 2018 .
- ^ Regional library network Austria / South Tyrol
- ^ Studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order and its branches. Volume 112.Saint Ottilien 2001, p. 502.
- ↑ Thomas Baumgartner, Oliver Fries, Lisa-Maria Gerstenbauer: The Feygenhaus in the Hofgartten alda Inwendig by Villerlay welschen Paumbwerch. The fig house of Kremsmünster Abbey - A building and gardening historical study, in: Arx. Castles and palaces in Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol , ed. from the South Tyrolean Castle Institute , 2017/1, pp. 8–18.
- ↑ Austria's largest forest owner ( Memento from November 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Wirtschaftsblatt on July 6, 1996.
- ↑ Transparency database , Agrarmarkt Austria
- ^ Enlightenment in Catholic . In: The Standard . March 25, 2012.
- ^ Kremsmünster monk before indictment . In: Profile. June 2, 2012.
- ↑ Twelve years imprisonment confirmed for ex-father . ORF.at, January 29, 2015.
- ^ Heiner Keupp, Florian Straus, Peter Mosser, Wolfgang Gmür, Gerhard Hackenschmied: Silence - Disclosure - Processing: Sexualized, psychological and physical violence in the Benedictine monastery Kremsmünster. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-14653-5 .
- ^ The abuse system of Kremsmünster . ORF.at, March 27, 2015.