Eberbacher Hof (Cologne)

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The Eberbacher Hof in Cologne was on both sides of Servasgasse near St. Kunibert (section of the Cologne cityscape from 1570 ).

The Erbacher- or Eberbacher Hof was the town courtyard of the Eberbach monastery in the Rheingau in the city of Cologne . It was an important medieval town courtyard of the monastery and at the same time a center of Cologne's wine trade . Part of the courtyard was the Servas Gate of the Cologne city wall , through which there was direct access to the Rhine harbor .

history

The date of construction of the court has not been passed down, but was probably already a few years after the monastery was founded in 1136. The court was first mentioned in 1163, when Pope Alexander III placed the Erbach cellar and court under his protection.

At this early stage, city courtyards were the exception in Cistercian monasteries . It was not until the 1180s that the general chapter of the order generally permitted their establishment, albeit initially limited to one building per location. Through the town courtyard, which was managed by the convents of the monastery, there was an exchange between the order and the citizens of Cologne. Repeatedly there were foundations of wealthy Cologne residents in favor of the monastery. Also from Cologne joined the order here, among them Heinrich, who was abbot of the monastery from 1352 to 1369. The courtyard was located in the Cologne suburb of Niederich, which was only walled in 1108, not far from the St. Kunibert Church . There were other monasteries in the immediate vicinity, including the Cistercian monastery Altenberg , town courtyards. In 1292 the city of Cologne transferred the Servas Gate to the monastery. This gave the monastery courtyard direct access to the Rhine harbor. The transfer was linked to the obligation to maintain the gate. For the monastery, the transfer also meant the granting of citizenship in the city.

The farm was gradually enlarged through acquisitions. The main building of the courtyard was a three-storey residential and administrative building with a large granary. In addition, the monastery acquired seven wine cellars in which up to 500,000 liters of wine were stored around 1500. There were also other outbuildings. The entire complex was enclosed by a wall and formed a "city within the city". The court was initially presided over by a converse, but monks and secular courtiers are also attested in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period.

The courtyard was the destination of the Cologne trip, the central event in the monastery's financial year. The organization and management of the Cologne journeys was the responsibility of important convent members. Usually with the bursar or directly with the abbot . During the trip to Cologne, agricultural surpluses from the monastery were transported to Cologne to be sold there. The main trade in the monastery was wine. Wine accounted for up to 60 percent of annual sales income. In addition, grain, wood and handicrafts from the monastery workshops were sold. The trip to Cologne took place annually in autumn after the grape harvest or in the following spring. The fleet of the monastery drove downstream from the Reichartshausen farm in the Rheingau and collected the income from the monastery farms in the Middle Rhine Valley . In 1185 the monastery was released from the royal Rhine toll in Koblenz . Through diplomatic efforts the monastery succeeded in the following decades to obtain duty-free at all customs stations up to Cologne.

In Cologne, the monastery was one of the most important church wine importers. Only the Domstift was able to import a comparable amount. Most of the imported wine was sold to wholesalers from Cologne who exported it to the whole of Northern Europe. Due to the quality, the monastery usually managed to achieve above-average prices. In addition to the sale of surpluses, the trips to Cologne served to meet demand with goods that the monastery could not produce itself. That was especially salt, sea fish, metal goods and spices. The partially preserved shopping lists of the monastery allow a detailed insight into these processes. A shopping list from 1517 is the oldest surviving evidence of the use of isinglass , the swim bladder of the sturgeon, to clarify wine .

From the 15th century onwards, the importance of the journey to Cologne and thus of the city courtyard for the monastery gradually decreased. It became increasingly difficult for the monastery to renew its tariff privileges. There were also conflicts with the council and citizens of the city of Cologne. The reason was disputes about the rights that the monastery was entitled to in the city. This involved the stacking right and the direct sale of wine to end consumers. In the 1410s, Johann von Nassau-Wiesbaden-Idstein , the Archbishop of Mainz, tried to find a balance between the city and the monastery. Due to the new Rhine toll that the city of Cologne introduced in 1475, the monastery had to temporarily sell its wine in Deutz in 1488 under pressure from the electors of Cologne and Mainz .

Up until the 16th century, Cologne remained the main trading point for the Eberbach wine trade. However, the relationship between town and monastery became increasingly worse. On November 23, 1523, soldiers from the town occupied the Servas Gate and refused entry to the monastery courtyard. Thereupon the monastery relocated its wine trade to Zons with the permission of the Archbishop of Cologne . In the following years the Cologne Council tried in vain to get the wine trade back to the city of Cologne. Despite delegations from the city of Cologne to the Rheingau, the project was unsuccessful. From the middle of the 16th century, the monastery then sold the wine to wholesalers directly in the growing areas. In the following century the wine trade increasingly shifted to the exhibition centers in Frankfurt and Leipzig . The Cologne city courtyard lost its importance and was leased.

The last significant event in the history of the monastery took place in the Thirty Years' War . When troops of the Swedish Army invaded the Rheingau, Abbot Leonhard and the convent fled with the monastery archive on November 29, 1631 in the Cologne city courtyard. The Swedish Army occupies the monastery buildings in the Rheingau. These were given by King Gustav II Adolf to Axel Oxenstierna as personal property. The Cologne city courtyard remained the exile seat of the convention. However, the monks lived in Cistercian monasteries in the Cologne area, especially in the Himmerod monastery . Abbot Leonhard died after a year in exile in Cologne and was buried in St. Kolumba Church in Cologne. Nikolaus Weinbach was elected as his successor . Under his leadership, the convent was able to return from Cologne to the Rheingau in 1635.

Although the court no longer had any significance for the monastery in modern times, it continued to hold on to it. However, the buildings were leased again. It was not until 1787, just a few years before the abbey was abolished, that Abbot Adolph II. Werner from Salmünster sold the building. A sugar refinery was initially set up in the buildings . In the 19th century, residential and commercial buildings were built over the land.

literature

  • Peter Engels, Hartmut Heinemann, Hilmar Tilgner: Eberbach. In: Friedhelm Jürgensmeier, Regina Schwerdtfeger (edit.): The monastery and nunnery of the Cistercians in Hesse and Thuringia. (= Germania Benedictina. Volume IV / 1). St. Ottilien 2011, ISBN 978-3-8306-7450-4 , pp. 383-572.
  • Wolfgang Einsingbach, Wolfgang Riedel: Eberbach Monastery in the Rheingau. 17th edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-02166-2 .
  • Matthias Untermann: Excavations and building studies in monasteries, grangia and town yards . Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-931836-95-9 .
  • The Hessian Minister for Agriculture and Forests, Freundeskreis Kloster Eberbach eV (Hrsg.): Eberbach im Rheingau. Cistercian - Culture - Wine . The Hessian Minister for Agriculture and Forests, Wiesbaden / Eltville 1986.