Canon Monastery of St. Peter Embrach

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The Canons' Monastery of St. Peter was probably a collegiate monastery of the Augustinian Canons , which was located in what is now the village center of Embrach and was dissolved in the course of the Reformation in 1524.

Founding saga

Tithe barn, office building and old church of Embrach. Etching by David Herrliberger (1697–1777).
The facade painting shows the destruction of Embrach by the Confederates in 1444

The founding legend of the Canons' Monastery is mentioned for the first time in Heinrich Brennwald's chronicle between 1508 and 1516. In his Memorabilia Tigurina from 1742, Hans Heinrich Bluntschli reports that two forest brothers lived on the Irchel . The one murdered the other and set fire to the little brother's house so that one would think that the murdered brother had neglected the little house and had an accident. The body of the murdered man remained intact in the fire and, as an indication that the other forest brother was the murderer, began to bleed profusely when he approached. Thereupon the murderer was handed over to Count von Kyburg and sentenced to death. The murdered forest brother, however, was buried in Embrach and a chapel was built over his grave. The people worshiped the murdered man as a saint and made pilgrimages to his grave. Little by little, large estates were donated and, with the approval of the Counts of Kyburg, a monastery of the regulated canons was finally built.

history

The foundation walls of the first monastery building were dated to the 9th century. They were uncovered during excavations carried out by the preservation authorities in 1992. In the 11th century the Canons' Monastery of St. Peter was founded, according to legend, donated by Landgrave Huno von Kyburg. The existing church may have been consecrated to St. Peter at an earlier time . Hunfried , Canon of Strasbourg, signed Embrach over to Bishop Wilhelm of Strasbourg in 1044 . The existing canon monastery was donated to the Strasbourg church (Hunfried deed). Most of the rights of the Strasbourg Church in and around Embrach later became fiefdoms of the Counts of Toggenburg , from these to the Kyburg and Habsburgs . In 1189 it is documented that the Embrach provost Reginhard visited the Abbey of Saint-Maurice in Valais and obtained relics of the Theban Legion from the abbot Wilhelm II for his church . The term Prepositus in this document for Reginhard proves the existence of a canon monastery in Embrach at the end of the 12th century. The Canons' Monastery initially had twelve, then eleven, canons who all had their particular benefices from which they lived. The monastery was headed by a provost, on whose seals St. Peter was depicted. The provost was also pastor of Embrach, but had the pastoral care performed by a people priest .

The St. Peterskirche in Embrach was the center of an extensive parish. This included the villages and farms around Embrach. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Embrach Canons' Monastery acquired numerous properties and houses in the Zurich Unterland , but also in Winterthur and Zurich . The provost had the lower jurisdiction for minor offenses. The highest jurisdiction lay with the Count of Kyburg, later Habsburg.

In the Sempach War in 1386, Swiss Confederates looted and pillaged the church and monastery. Reconstruction began in 1392. In 1445, it is documented that the canon monastery was consecrated to St. Paul in addition to St. Peter . Inheritance disputes over the Toggenburg lands led to the Old Zurich War in 1444 . In this turmoil, large parts of the village of Embrach and the Canons' Monastery were again completely destroyed by the Confederates. For the second time in less than 60 years, the monastery buildings including St. Peter's Church were in ruins. The provost had fled and found refuge in Zurich, where he was canon with SS Felix and Regula . Only a few of the canons remained in Embrach. The village, monastery and church were rebuilt from 1446 onwards. Eberhard Nellenburger joined the canons who stayed behind in 1448 and proved himself to be so capable in the reconstruction of the monastery that the Pope personally appointed him the new provost. The newly built Gothic collegiate church had six side altars in addition to the high altar consecrated in honor of St. Peter. At the beginning of the 16th century, a St. Gallus chapel was also mentioned, where the chapter meetings took place at that time.

Decline and abolition of the pen

In the last 20 to 30 years before the Reformation, things were no longer good for the Canon Monastery. Some of the canons led a disgusting way of life, the choir service left a lot to be desired and the economy of the monastery was poor. Therefore, towards the end of the 15th century, the city of Zurich increased its control over the monastery economy, which was neglected under Provost Johannes von Cham. The last provost, Heinrich Brennwald, achieved an improvement in conditions, but on September 19, 1524, the Embrach canon monastery was handed over to the city of Zurich, which abolished the monastery and founded the so-called Embracher Amt , which existed until 1798. The collegiate church continued to be used as a reformed church until it collapsed in 1778 and was replaced by the current reformed church . The insignia of St. Peter, the two keys, can be found today in the coat of arms of the political municipality of Embrach. The Catholic Church Embrach has Saint Peter as its patron due to the Canon Monastery of St. Peter.

literature

  • Arnold Nüscheler : All places of worship in Switzerland up to the year 1860. Zurich 1864. Reprint DOGMA European university publisher. Bremen 2013.
  • Béatrice Wiggenhauser: Clerical Careers. The rural monastery of Embrach and its members in the Middle Ages. Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 1997. 650 pages. ISBN 3-905312-45-X
  • Ernst Gassmann: Catholic parish St. Petrus Embrach. Festschrift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the St. Petrus Church. Embrach 1974.
  • Hans Baer: Legends and sagas from the Embracher valley. New year's paper of the Bülach reading society, 1981.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Baer: Legends and sagas from the Embracher valley. Pp. 13/14.
  2. ^ Ernst Gassmann: Catholic parish St. Petrus Embrach. Pp. 3-4.
  3. ^ Ernst Gassmann: Catholic parish St. Petrus Embrach. Pp. 4-5.
  4. ^ Arnold Nüscheler: All places of worship in Switzerland up to the year 1860. P. 265
  5. ^ Ernst Gassmann: Catholic parish St. Petrus Embrach. P. 6
  6. ↑ Hans Baer: Embrach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . November 14, 2005 , accessed July 24, 2013 .
  7. ^ Ernst Gassmann: Catholic parish St. Petrus Embrach. P. 8

Coordinates: 47 ° 30 '7 "  N , 8 ° 35' 45.8"  E ; CH1903:  687203  /  261,886