Conradusstein
The Conradus stone is a historical grave slab in the temple house in Neckarelz . Possibly it is the grave slab of Konrad von Büchel , who founded the two Johanniter castles in Neckarelz and Boxberg .
description
The grave slab, which has been embedded in an inner wall of the temple house since it was converted into a parish church in 1731, shows the life-size relief image of a man with tonsure in religious costume, who holds a chalice in both hands. The sitter has a ribbon with crosses around his shoulder in the manner of a pallium , which marks him as a high spiritual dignitary. To the left and right of his head are two eight-pointed stars. On the edge of the grave slab a legend is carved in Latin capital letters. Through various restoration measures over time, the original inscription was alienated.
Interpretation of the inscription
The shape of the letters in comparison with the writing on the seal of the town of Wimpfen from 1250 or with the writing on the tomb of a young knight in the church in Uissigheim from 1330 corresponds to the year MCCCII (= 1302) recognizable from the inscription, so that the plate probably made immediately after the death of the person depicted in 1302.
Due to the alienation of the letters, the inscription cannot be read with certainty. Prof. Dr. Albert interpreted the inscription in his description of the temple house from 1937 as follows: ANNO DO (MINI) MCCCII XI K (A) L (ENDAS) MAII O (BIIT) FRAT (ER) CO (N) RADVS SACERDOS DE COL (ON) IA FVNDATOR DOM (VS) ISTI (VS) ET CAP (ELLANUS) BOC (S) B (ER) G (ENSIS). According to this reading, the inscription means: "In the year of the Lord 1302, on April 21, the brother Conrad, priest from Cologne, founder of this house and Boxberg chaplain, died".
In 1823 Karl Friedrich Jaeger had interpreted the origin of the person from the phrase DE COL · IA as DE GOLIA , from which later researchers also read DE GALLIA . The interpretation as DE CORNELIA ("Cornelia" is the old name of Wimpfen) occurred. Jaeger interpreted the abbreviation CAP (which could also be read GAN, CAN or CAR etc.) as CANTOR . According to Jaeger, the person pictured should have come from a now no longer known noble family von Golia and directed the church music in Boxberg. Professor Albert was also not entirely sure of his interpretation from 1937 and initially interpreted the abbreviation that preceded the place name Boxberg as GANEATOR , which would make the sitter a Boxberg master chef . These interpretations do not stand up to historical considerations about the history of the temple house and the clothing of the sitter. Neither a food master nor a cantor would wear the garb of a high clerical dignitary, nor is there any evidence that the Johanniter temple in Neckarelz was founded by a Cologne or Wimpfen priest.
The local history researcher Fritz Liebig assumed the following reading in 1952: ANNO DO (MINII) MCCCII XI K (A) L (ENDAS) MAII O (BIIT) FRAT (ER) CO (N) RADVS SACERDOS DE COL (LEGIO) (PR) I (MA) A (VCTORITATE) FVNDATOR DOM (VS) ISTI (VS) ET CAPIT (OLII) BOC (S) B (ER) G (ENSIS). This interpretation and completion of the inscription reads in German: "In the year of the Lord 1302, on April 21st, brother Conrad, a priest of the highest esteem from the college and the founder of this house and the temple palace in Boxberg, died".
Identification of the person represented
The temple house was the seat of a commander of the Franks Ballei of the Order of St. John . In addition to goods in Neckarelz, goods in Boxberg - Wölchingen and Büchold were also part of the upcoming . The origin of the Kommende is probably in Wölchingen, where possession of the order in 1249 and the commandery is documented as early as 1274. Most of the old Boxberg lordship was added by 1287, and the Neckarelz estate around 1300. When the property in Wölchingen was mentioned in 1249, a Conradus de Buechel was mentioned as sacerdos and provisor domus , who moved to the castle in Boxberg after 1287 and can be considered its founder. If one follows the interpretation of the inscription of Conradusstein, which sees the founder of the Boxberg temple castle in the depicted person, then the depicted person is the same Konrad von Büchel. Due to the similarity of names, its origin can most likely be located in Büchold. After the lost battle of Gaza in 1244, the Order of St. John had little interest in acquiring small estates in remote districts, so that the property in Büchold, Boxberg and Neckarelz probably came through donations to the order, which also quickly took hold of that property in the course of the 14th century resold: Neckarelz 1350, Büchold 1364, Boxberg 1381. Konrad could have given his property in Büchold as a young man around the middle of the 13th century and then placed himself in the service of the order.
The clothes and other attributes provide information about the rank of the person depicted. While knights wore the St. John's Cross on a ribbon bow without a star on their chest, a pallium was only available to a person of the rank of abbot or bishop, and in the case of the Order of St. John also to a grand officer. The stars on both sides of the head, interpreted by Albrecht only as a symbol for being taken into the sky, can be interpreted as the breast star of a senior officer, shown twice for the sake of symmetry. The size of the tonsure also speaks for a higher dignitary.
The origin of the temple house in Neckarelz is largely unknown. When it was first mentioned in 1300 it was already owned by the Order of St. John. The chalice in the sitter's hands could, however, allow conclusions to be drawn about the early history of ownership. A Burgmann of located at the opposite Neckarufer Burgenland Very had according to a document of 1432 a relic with holy blood from the Heide shaft brought. “Several particles” of the relic are said to have been brought to the collegiate church of St. Juliana in Mosbach in 1297 . Liebig (1952) speculates that both Landsehr Castle and the temple house were in one hand before 1300, from which the temple house then came to the Johanniter. The main relic could have gone to the Johanniter together with the temple house and been kept by Konrad von Büchel, who according to his regalia was a high spiritual dignitary.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Prof. Dr. Albert: The Templar House in Neckarelz , Neckarelz 1937
- ↑ Willibald Reichwein: Heimische Kunstdenkmäler , in: Mein Boxberg No. 3/1936
literature
- Fritz Liebig: The Conradus stone in the "Tempelhaus" in Neckarelz , in: Badische Heimat, 32nd year 1952, issue 2/3
- History and Museum Association Mosbach (Ed.): 700 Years of the Neckarelz Temple House , Mosbach-Neckarelz 2000, pp. 21–23.