Beerenberg Monastery
The monastery Maria Zell am Beerberg was an Augustinian canons - pen , the ruins on the eastern slope of the Beer Berg lie west of Wülflingen , a city district of Winterthur in Switzerland .
prehistory
On November 9th, 1318 lay brother Stephan Rheinauer (Rinower) from Winterthur received permission from Duke Leopold I of Austria, lord of Wülflingen and Kyburg , to build a hermitage in the forest of Berraberg . On the land donated to him by the Duke, Rheinauer erected a simple building with a chancel and a living room. Other brothers joined him over time, but after his death they moved and the hermitage was abandoned.
founding
In 1355 Franciscans from the Diocese of Passau , led by Heinrich von Linz, came to the Beerenberg, with the permission of Bishop Johann III. from Constance to build a monastery there. Seven years later, on January 28, 1362, it was by Bishop Heinrich III. confirmed by Konstanz as "Our Frowen Cell in Berraberg" and given various powers with regard to worship, entry and exit of the brothers, choice of prior , etc. Duke Rudolf gave the monastery extensive property and rights in 1363 and 1364 and took it under his special protection. In 1365, Bishop Heinrich III. the community, which has now grown to nine brothers, to accept the rule of the Augustinian Canons; They joined the small branch of the Steigerherren ("Ordo Steigensium"), which was named after the Oberstieg monastery in Alsace and whose main house had been in Zabern since 1303 . Shortly thereafter, the canons had a goldsmith from Zurich make a round, bronze seal stamp, which was used until the monastery was abolished. In December 1372, Bishop Heinrich consecrated the high altar and three other altars in the almost completed monastery church. Two other altars were consecrated in 1378 and 1396. The monastery, bounded by a wall, consisted of the church with a cloister , a priory building attached to the church, a farm building, canons' houses and the monastery garden.
Heyday
The monastery enjoyed the goodwill of ecclesiastical and secular lords and subsequently acquired large estates through gifts, indulgences and purchases. Duke Leopold III. of Austria, as sovereign and owner of the rule Wülflingen , decreed in 1369/70 that all goods donated to the monastery were to be released from the lordship so that they belonged to the monastery as free property. In 1374 the church was granted burial rights , which made it a parish church . In 1384 the monastery was detached from the parish of Wülflingen and formed its own small parish. Duke Albrecht III. As patron of the parish of Wülflingen, decreed on October 23, 1387 that prior and convent of Beerenberg, together with their property and people, should be exempted from all parish claims and rights of the church of Wülflingen within a hundred fathoms (about 181 meters) around the monastery, and against an annual compensation of 10 shillings for the parish lost income ( sacrifices , stol fees , etc.).
With the decoration of the church, the beginning flowering of spiritual life and increasing land ownership, the convent enjoyed a growing reputation well into the 15th century.
Decline
Then the late medieval crisis began in Beerenberg. The canons lived a lush life and the administration of the convent deteriorated noticeably. This was also the case with the other four houses of the "Steigerherren" (besides Beerenberg, Oberstieg and Zabern, Lahr / Black Forest and Landau in the Palatinate ). Pope Sixtus IV therefore ordered the dissolution of the five convents on June 17, 1482 and the transfer of their property to regulated Augustinian canons. That the morality of the Beerenberg convent brothers was no longer good can be seen from the fact that they tried in 1483 or 1484 to flee abroad , taking with them money, relics and church treasures. The Zurich authorities prevented this; the Kyburger Landvogt Felix Schwarzmurer had the prior arrested and the fugitive brothers captured. The remaining monastery treasures were brought to the Töss monastery near Winterthur. Schwarzmurer got into trouble with the church, because ecclesiastical courts were responsible for offenses by clergy, but that didn't change the fate of the convent. The ecclesiastical authorities ordered punishments and transfers, and two of the brothers lost their priestly dignity. The monastery was filled with regulated Augustinian canons and, with St. Leonhard in Basel and St. Martin in Zurich, joined the Windesheim congregation as one of only three Swiss foundations .
The End
With the Zurich Reformation , monastic life on the Beerenberg came to an end. The last four canons received a pension in 1527 and passed away. The monastery estates were nationalized in 1528 and from 1540 they were administered together with those of the Rüti Abbey (as far as they were around Winterthur) and the Heiligenberg Monastery as a joint "Office of Winterthur". The monastery buildings, also nationalized in 1528, were sold in 1530 to the judge Hans Steiner in Pfungen , who used them as his residence. After his death in 1543, some buildings remained inhabited until around 1600, but were then left to decay. In 1717 the fate of the Mariazell monastery complex was finally sealed: it was used as a quarry for the construction of the patrician house " Zur Geduld " in Winterthur's Marktgasse. In 1922 Steiner's descendants sold the ruins to the Winterthur Transport and Improvement Association. - A few surviving medieval manuscripts could have belonged to the books of the Beerenberg monastery.
Current condition
Until the second half of the 20th century there were no efforts to secure and preserve the remaining ruins. Rubble had gradually buried the remains of the building. The last visible remains were covered with earth in 1930 to protect them from further destruction. Excavations took place in three phases, from July 1970 to October 1972, followed in 1973 by the conservation of the remaining remains of the wall. Walls up to four meters high had been preserved in the mountainside. Among other things, floors made of Holt, sandstone or clay slabs and a low brick hearth as well as a stove that had heated a bathroom could be detected.
In the cloister two graves were found. From the heyday of the monastery found evidence during the excavation stove tiles with tracery decorated clay tiles, fragments of a Holy clay figure, decorated drinking glasses and cups made of stoneware .
During the most recent excavation in 2009, the archaeologists found several graves of monks who had died between the ages of 35 and 50 and who had suffered from osteoarthritis and tuberculosis. In addition, a skeleton of a strong and healthy man around 60 years old was found who had been buried in a coffin decorated with decorative nails. A sandstone tomb stood over his grave. The preferred location in the cloister between the church and the convent building leads to the assumption that the deceased was the founder of the monastery Heinrich von Linz.
Today the church walls, the location of the cloister and the walls of the convent building are visible. The evaluation of the finds was published in 2011 in the yearbook of the Swiss Castle Association . The ruin has been under federal protection since 1973.
Overview
reconstruction
Church interior
Books
The books were scattered upon lifting. Four manuscripts, all in Gothic bindings, ended up in the library of the Großmünsterstift in Zurich and later with its holdings in the Zurich Central Library (ZBZ, manuscript department):
- ZBZ Ms. Car. C 153 Latin hermit rules of the Klausner Grimleich (Grimlaic) in the diocese of Metz with order rules for women's monasteries, written in the 9th / 10th. Century, copy around 1015 (Perg.-Hs., 104 ll.)
- ZBZ Ms. Car. C 105 Commentary on Ezekiel by Pope Gregory the Great, copy of the 12th century, perg., 131 ll.
- ZBZ Ms. Car. C 133: Chronicle of Martinus Polonus (Martin von Troppau, Martinus Oppaviensis), lat., 13th century.
- ZBZ Ms. Car. C 171 Book of edification for Petrus de la Sepieyra of Limoges, Perg.-Hs. of the 14th century
literature
- Veronika Feller-Vest: "Winterthur, Beerenberg", in: The Augustinian Canons and the Women's Choir Communities in Switzerland. Basel 2004 (Helvetia Sacra; Dept. IV, Vol. 2), pp. 473–491
- Anton Largiadèr: “On the history of the Augustinian Canons of Mariazell on the Beerenberg near Winterthur,” in: Ferdinand Elsener, Wilhelm Heinrich Ruoff (ed.): Festschrift Karl Siegfried Bader. Legal history, legal language, legal archeology, legal folklore, Zurich 1965, pp. 251–266
- Peter Ziegler: “On the building history of the Beerenberg and Heiligenberg monasteries near Winterthur”, In: Winterthurer Jahrbuch, Winterthur 1969, pp. 19–38
- Peter Ziegler: The Canons' Monastery of Mariazell on the Beerenberg , in: Peter Ziegler: Wülflingen, from the beginnings to the present , Winterthur City Library 1975 (305th New Year's Gazette of the Winterthur City Library ), pp. 41–58 with illustration: seal stamp around 1370, floor plan P. 52, ruins drawn by Conrad Meyer around 1650, Johann Balthasar Bullinger (18th century), Felix Meyer (around 1700); Photos of the excavation 1971–1972.
- Elsanne Gilomen-Schenkel: The Augustinian Canons and the women's choir communities in Switzerland. (Helvetia Sacra IV / 2), Schwabe, Basel 2004, ISBN 978-3-7965-1217-9
- Magazine once and now , issue 2/2010; Pp. 14-17
- Felicia Schmaedecke: The Mariazell Monastery on the Beerenberg near Winterthur . Swiss Castle Association, Basel 2011, ISBN 978-3-908182-22-1 .
Web links
- National information center for the preservation of cultural assets
- "How the monastery came to Marktgasse" ( Der Landbote , August 14, 2008) (PDF file; 358 kB)
- Arnold Nüscheler : The Houses of God in Switzerland Orell, Füssli and Co., Zurich 1864 (p. 270–272).
- Heinrich Murer: Vallis Sae Catharinae propehabenhoffe, pp. 83–85: "Founding history of the Beerenberg monastery"
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Schmidt: Nikolaus von Basel, Life and Selected Writings, Braumüller, Vienna 1866, p. 74
- ^ Josef Siegwart: Augustinian Canons. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ., Accessed on January 9, 2009
- ^ Leo Cunibert Mohlberg : Catalog of the manuscripts of the Zurich Central Library. - Zurich 1951/1965, vol. 1: Medieval manuscripts; Regarding manuscripts from Beerenberg see register p. 518.