Comburg

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The Comburg 2007
Big (left) and small Comburg
The Großcomburg in the Steinbach district on an old mountain of the Kocher, seen from the south
View from Kleincomburg to the north of the (Groß-) Comburg
View from the end of the 16th century
The towers of St. Nicholas
The wheel chandelier

The Comburg even Komburg written and Großcomburg called, is a former convent of Benedictine and later Ritterstiftskirche. Today it is located in the area of ​​the city of Schwäbisch Hall in the district of the same name in north-eastern Baden-Württemberg .

location

The Comburg is located on a mountain to the right of the Kocher Valley, southeast of Schwäbisch Hall, with the Steinbach suburb at its foot.

history

monastery

The counts of Comburg-Rothenburg donated to a 1078 the Diocese of Würzburg under standing Benedictine monastery on the site of their castle , in the one of the founders, Count Burkhard, a monk came in. The first monks came from Brauweiler in the Rhineland, but between 1086 and 1088 a monk from Hirsau was appointed abbot, so that Comburg was one of the monasteries of the Hirsau Reform from this point on . In addition to the count family, their relatives and neighbors also supported the establishment. The Mainz Ministeriale Wignand donated such large estates to the monastery that he was seen as another monastery donor.

After a heyday that can also be seen in numerous buildings, the monastery declined in the 13th century, which led to an economic collapse in 1326. There were also internal tensions and disputes between the abbot and the convent over the use of the monastery property. The situation improved again in the second half of the 14th century. The economic recovery went hand in hand with a softening of the rules of the order.

The protective bailiwick was owned by the founding family until they died out, fell to the Staufer in 1138 and was claimed by the Limpurg taverns in 1254 ; However, the monastery was able to fend off this claim and remained under the royal bailiwick, which Ludwig the Bavarian transferred to the imperial city of Schwäbisch Hall in 1318/1319. In 1484 the bailiwick fell as an imperial fiefdom to the bishop of Würzburg , who appointed the Limpurg taverns as sub-governors.

pen

Since all Comburg monks came from the nobility , the reform efforts of the Benedictine order met resistance in the 15th century. The convent refused to accept non-nobles and to adapt its way of life to the strict rules of the order. At his instigation and with the support of the Bishop of Würzburg, the monastery was converted into a noble canon monastery ( collegiate monastery ) in 1488 and experienced a new heyday in the 16th century under the provost Erasmus Neustetter (1551–1594).

The abolition of the monastery by King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and donation to his Colonel Bernhard Schaffalitzky von Muckadell during the Thirty Years' War remained an episode. Under Wilhelm Ulrich von Guttenberg (1695–1736) the new deanship and the baroque new building of the collegiate church, which replaced the Romanesque church, were built.

Possessions

Comburg initially received ownership from the founding family and later from aristocratic families in the area. Most of the goods were located south and east of the monastery, further away were the Gebsattel provosts (near Rothenburg ob der Tauber ), Nussbaum (near Höchstberg , Heilbronn district ) and Stein (near Ingelfingen , Hohenlohe district).

As early as the 13th century, the monastery property dwindled noticeably, which continued because there was no strong guardian and there were internal tensions. In the 15th and 16th centuries Comburg had to sell extensive properties. Only the places Steinbach, Hausen an der Rot, Großallmerspann and Gebsattel remained under the sole rule of the monastery.

All other possessions were in condominiums , in which the Comburg authorities were limited to their own property. Church patronage formed an important part of the rulership rights. The Reformation Comburg could still prevent only in the four places where it had the local government - in the other parishes of the Catholic patronage pin Protestant pastors had to appoint. Attempts at recatholization were made under the protection of Bavarian troops during the Thirty Years' War , but they had to be abandoned after their withdrawal.

After secularization

Friedrich I of Württemberg occupied the Comburg imperial monastery in 1802 and closed it in 1803. The church treasure was melted down in the Ludwigsburg Mint, the valuable library with numerous medieval manuscripts is now in the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart .

From 1817 to 1909 the Comburg served as a garrison for the honorary invalid corps, which was made up of disabled soldiers . In 1926, one of the first folk high schools in Württemberg was established here, which was dominated by the reform pedagogy of the 1920s. It was dissolved in 1936. During the time of National Socialism , the Comburg served as a building trade school, as a location for the Hitler Youth , the Reich Labor Service and a prisoner of war camp . After the end of the Second World War , liberated forced laborers and prisoners of war (" Displaced Persons ") were housed here for a short time . Since 1947 Comburg has been the seat of a state academy for teacher training, which in 2004 became part of the state academy for training and personnel development at schools in Baden-Württemberg .

Attractions

Choir of St. Nicholas
Chapter House

Although some buildings were demolished in the 19th century, the Comburg offers a largely preserved ensemble of buildings from the 11th to 18th centuries.

Monastery complex

The entire monastery complex is enclosed by a curtain wall with fortified towers from the 16th century, which gives the entire complex a fortified, castle-like character. Behind the inner gate, which is crowned by the Romanesque St. Michael's Chapel, is the "Old Dean's Office" with a museum café and information center.

The simple Romanesque cloister was partially reconstructed in 1965. Behind the south wing of the noble family to which lies taverns of Limpurg as Schenkenberg chapel called Romanesque chapter house with numerous grave monuments from the early 13th century. Part of the old abbey is the imperial hall with Romanesque arcade windows .

Most of the Comburg buildings are used by the State Academy for advanced training and personnel development in schools and the Catholic parish and can therefore not be visited or only with restrictions.

Erhard Chapel

The function of the Erhard Chapel opposite , a two-story Romanesque hexagonal building from the end of the 13th century, is unknown . One suspects a Holy Sepulcher chapel in it. Inside there are frescoes from the Romanesque and Renaissance periods .

Michael's Chapel

The St. Michael Chapel is located at the gate entrance .

Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas and St. Mary

The current building of the former collegiate church St. Nikolaus and St. Maria , a baroque hall church, was built by the Würzburg court architect Joseph Greissing 1706–1715 on the site of a Romanesque basilica consecrated in 1088, while retaining the three late Romanesque towers. An antemensale (front wall of an altar), around 1130, made of gilded copper sheet and the large wheel chandelier made of gilded and silvered copper sheet, also around 1130, with a circumference of 15.77 m, which represents the heavenly Jerusalem, and the donor's sarcophagus from around 1180 have been preserved from the previous building The baroque high altar by the Würzburg artist Balthasar Esterbauer from 1713/1717 and the Peter and Paul altar by Michael Kern (1610/20) also deserve special mention . The church is used by the Catholic parish for services on Sundays and public holidays.

Kleincomburg

location

Kleincomburg is located south of Comburg, halfway up the Schwäbisch Hall suburb of Steinbach.

history

Church on the Kleincomburg, looking east from the nave to the choir

The sources on the early history of Kleincomburg are very poor. Georg Widman, a 16th century chronicler from Hall, reports that a women's convent was founded there in 1108 by Wignand von Mainz and Count Heinrich von Comburg-Rothenburg. Her wives both entered there as nuns. Heinrich's wife is referred to as "conversa" in the Hirsauer Codex, but without any indication of where she was. Other messages from Widman about Kleincomburg are proven to be false. Therefore, this information is also of dubious value. The most reliable reference to a women's monastery on the Kleincomburg is a document from 1291, the text of which has been preserved in a Comburg copial book from the 15th century. A provost , a master ("magistra") and nuns at St. Egidius ("dominae sancti Egidii aput Camberg") are mentioned, who own a share in the Schwäbisch Hall saltworks . The possessions were to be administered separately from the property of the men's monastery. Since the first listing of the owners of rights to the saltworks from 1306 no longer mentions this community, it probably ceased to exist before this date. A continuity between the convent, which was relatively reliably documented in 1291, and the convent allegedly founded in 1108 cannot, however, be proven. Structural traces of a women's monastery have not been preserved. The church itself can be dated to around 1100. Circumstances such as the basilica shape, which is atypical for women's monasteries, or the lack of a nun's gallery speak against the fact that it was built for this purpose. According to a hypothesis by Eberhard home, the church could also have belonged to a widow's residence of the count family. The foundation of the women's monastery around 1108 would therefore be a "legend". Since the 13th century, Kleincomburg was the seat of a provost office of the Comburg monastery, which existed until the 15th century. In 1684 Comburg left the Kleincomburg to the Capuchin Order , who first established a hospice and then a monastery in 1713, which Württemberg abolished in 1802. After an interlude as a Franciscan convent (1861–1867), the facility was a branch of the Schwäbisch Hall correctional facility from 1877 to 2015. The church is used by the Catholic parish for worship.

Attractions

Only the church of St. Giles has survived from the original structure, a Romanesque basilica in a simple Hirsau style with a cruciform floor plan from the period shortly after 1100. In the dome of the apse and in the choir vault there are wall paintings dating from 1878/79 based on old Traces have been restored. St. Aegidius is the only largely unaltered Romanesque church in the region. The 18th century monastery buildings are considered to be artistically insignificant and cannot be visited.

literature

  • Klaus Gereon Beuckers, with the collaboration of Sören Groß (Ed.): Großcomburg Monastery. New research. (State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg), Regensburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7954-3442-7 .
  • Rolf Dieter Blumer, Ines Frontzek: Researched and mapped. The Hertwig chandelier from Comburg. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 41, Issue 4, 2012, ISSN  0342-0027 , pp. 194-199 ( digital version (PDF; 3.36 MB) ).
  • Eberhard home: The Komburgen. Your buildings, builders and clients. Jahrbuch-Verlag, Weinsberg 1982.
  • Gabriele Kleiber: Groß- and Kleincomburg . Publisher of the State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg in cooperation with the State Gazette for Baden-Württemberg GmbH. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich et al. 1999, ISBN 3-422-03061-1 .
  • Rainer Jooß: Komburg Monastery in the Middle Ages. Studies on the constitutional, property and social history of a Franconian Benedictine abbey (= research from Württembergisch-Franconia. Vol. 4). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1987, ISBN 3-7995-7629-0 .
  • Elisabeth Schraut (ed.): The Comburg. From the Middle Ages to the 20th century (= catalogs of the Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum Schwäbisch Hall. Vol. 3). Exhibition in the Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum and on the Comburg, Neue Dekanei. July 13 to November 5, 1989. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1989, ISBN 3-7995-3303-6 .

Web links

Commons : Comburg  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Comburg in the Topographia Franconiae (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Academy for Further Education and Personnel Development at Schools in Baden-Württemberg - Comburg site
  2. ↑ http://www.katholisch-in-hall.de
  3. ^ Rainer Jooß: Komburg Monastery in the Middle Ages. Studies on the constitutional, property and social history of a Franconian Benedictine abbey (= research from Württembergisch-Franconia. Vol. 4). Eppinger-Verlag, Schwäbisch Hall 1971, pp. 28–30 (here the references missing in the 2nd edition from 1987).
  4. ↑ So the alleged seal of the Prioress Agnes of Paris, s. Rainer Jooß: Komburg Monastery in the Middle Ages. Studies on the constitutional, property and social history of a Franconian Benedictine abbey (= research from Württembergisch-Franconia. Vol. 4). Eppinger-Verlag, Schwäbisch Hall 1971, pp. 125–126.
  5. ↑ Eberhard home: The Komburgen. Your buildings, builders and clients . Jahrbuch-Verlag, Weinsberg 1982, pp. 28-35.
  6. ↑ "Berchtoldus" is documented as the first provost in 1283, and Jörg von Rinderbach as the apparently last in 1464, s. Rainer Jooß: Komburg Monastery in the Middle Ages. Studies on the constitutional, property and social history of a Franconian Benedictine abbey (= research from Württembergisch-Franconia. Vol. 4). Eppinger-Verlag, Schwäbisch Hall 1971, pp. 73-74, 139 u. 155.
  7. ↑ http://www.katholisch-in-hall.de

Coordinates: 49 ° 6 ′ 1 ″  N , 9 ° 44 ′ 59 ″  E