Ceremonial translation of the imperial-royal-also-ducal-Austrian highest corpses

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The epitaphs from the princely crypt in St. Blasien Cathedral, 1785

The solemn translation of the imperial-royal-also-ducal-Austrian highest corpses on November 14, 1770 was a church political measure initiated by Prince Abbot Martin Gerbert to preserve the Benedictine Abbey of St. Blasien in the run-up to secularization . The anachronistic funeral procession staged with Pompa funa (Pomp funèbre) marks the end of baroque public celebrations in Upper Austria . On that day, the train, moving at a pace, mastered several stations, handovers and ceremonial acts on an uphill stretch of around 23 kilometers with a height difference of 650 meters.

prehistory

In the 1760s, as a secondary center of the European Enlightenment, a critical attitude towards religious orders and monasteries developed in Vienna , which the Empress Maria Theresa and her advisors increasingly embraced. In this situation, the prince abbot of St. Blasien Martin Gerbert was looking for a sustainable strategy and concepts to preserve the venerable Benedictine abbey of St. Blasien.

The abbots of St. Blasien considered themselves the first vicars of the House of Habsburg . The Habsburg burial place in Königsfelden, seven kilometers from the Blasian Dinghof in Kirchdorf , was therefore the focus of the St. Blasien Abbey even after the Swiss conquest of Aargau in 1415. At the request of Prince Abbot Franz Schächtelin , the burial place was opened and examined in 1739. Martin Gerbert, the 1769 material for a historiographical essay on the tombs of the early members of the House of Habsburg gathered, the renovation Habsburg grave condition in came over on his second investigation monastery Königsfelden the vision to rebuild the 1,768 burned monastery church Blasien as Gedenkdom and crypt for in The bones of the members of the House of Habsburg orphaned by the Confederation. With this measure he believed he could permanently preserve the benevolence of the imperial family for the abbey.

procedure

Preparations

The empty Habsburg crypt in the monastery church in Königsfelden

Thanks to his good bilateral relations to Innsbruck , Vienna , Bern and Basel and a certain lack of interest on the part of those involved, Martin Gerbert succeeded in only three months in obtaining approval to transfer the remains of prominent members of the House of Habsburg to St. Blasien. Empress Maria Theresia supported the project in a letter to the Bern and Basel governments. On September 10, 1770, the remains of the following people were exhumed in the monastery church in Königsfelden :

  1. Friedrich (* 1316; † a few days after birth) - son of Friedrich the Fair
  2. Elisabeth of Görz-Tirol (* around 1262, † 1313) - wife of King Albrecht I.
  3. Leopold I (* 1290; † 1326) - son of King Albrecht I.
  4. Heinrich (* 1299; † 1327) - son of King Albrecht I.
  5. Gutta (* 1302; † 1329) - daughter of King Albrecht I , wife of Ludwig VI. from Oettingen
  6. Catherine of Savoy (around 1297–1304; † 1336) - wife of Duke Leopold I.
  7. Elisabeth von Virneburg (around 1303; † 1343) - wife of Duke Heinrich
  8. Katharina (* 1320; † 1349) - daughter of Duke Leopold I , wife of Enguerrand VI. de Coucy
  9. Elisabeth (* around 1285; † 1352) - daughter of King Albrecht I , wife of Friedrich IV. Of Lorraine
  10. Agnes (* around 1281; † 1364) - daughter of King Albrecht I , wife of King Andrew III. of Hungary
  11. Leopold III. (* 1351; † 1386) - son of Duke Albrecht II.

In the case of Friedrich (the son of Friedrich the Beautiful ), who died in 1316 , only six boards were removed from his coffin and handed over by the Bernese court master Carl Ludwig Ougspurger to the Upper Austrian government and chamber councilor Johann Nepomuk Freiherren von Wittenbach as the responsible court commissioner. Friedrich's body could no longer be found. Therefore only six boards of his coffin could be recovered. The baron von Wittenbach initially stored the bones in the Blasian provost of Klingnau .

The orphaned tomb of Gertrud von Hohenberg in Basel Minster

A plaque on the west wall of the Königsfeldener hereditary burial commemorates the exhumations: “ Anno MDCCLXX. the 10th September, are / the above-described arched-ducal bodies on / request of his Käyserl: Königl: Apostol: Mayestät, / with the consent of a high freestate Bern, / those of the orderly His high prince: graces / of the Lords Abbots of St: Blasien, um in dasiger Stiffts-Kirche, handed over by the ruling H: Mr. Hofmeister / Carl Ludwig Ougsburger at the time / here. »

Franz Ludwig Haller , who kept the well-preserved skeleton of Leopold III. Examined in 1769, 1770 and again in 1806, described frontal and right-temporal cut and stab injuries to the skull.

Intensive research in the Töss monastery did not reveal any evidence of Habsburg burials that still existed there.

On November 10, 1770 took place in Basel Cathedral , the exhumation of the remains of:

  1. Karl (* 1276; † a few days after birth) - son of King Rudolf I.
  2. Hartmann (* around 1263; † 1281) - son of King Rudolf I.
  3. Gertrud von Hohenberg (* around 1225; † 1281) - wife of King Rudolf I.

The remains of these three Habsburgs were also immediately shipped to Klingnau .

Arrival of the bones in Austria

The further transport of the collected burials led from the Blasian provost of Klingnau, across the Aare and across the Rhine to the town of Waldshut in Austria . There the Baron von Wittenberg handed over the burials and leaden inscriptions on the coffins to the k. On November 14th, 1770 after landing in the Waldshut Rheinhafen. u. k. Court commissioner and Austrian representative in the Confederation Baron Josef von Nagel. From a funeral procession with 24 departments of councilors and government members, unification masters, the entire secular clergy, the Capuchin fathers with their cross and the trombone choir of the town music, the representatively decorated funeral car with pomp funèbre in front of the newly built town hall, lined with mourning ribbon, was sent to the Handed over to the authorized representative of the St. Blasien Monastery. From there the funeral car was led by the prelates of St. Trudpert and St. Peter in full regalia and a funeral procession in 15 sections to the St. Blasien monastery. In Waldkirch on the border to the Blasian Zwing und Bann the procession was handed over by the Hauensteiner Landsturm and the town musicians to the Blasian law enforcement officers. After dark the train reached the illuminated St. Blasien and was received there with military honors. The first blessing by the prince abbot took place on a specially made mourning pedestal, whose speech is handed down in the commemorative publication of the same title from 1770 with a picture of the structure by Johann Baptist Haas. A more detailed and explicitly illustrated second report: De translatis Habsburgo-Austriacorum principium ... appeared in 1772 in the monastery printing house.

Path of the funeral procession to St. Blasien

The funeral procession followed the early modern mule track from Waldshut Rheinhafen to St. Blasien monastery via Waldkirch and Höchenschwand, which has not yet been fully clarified. The route was changed in 1780 to the west over the Gupfen and north with the doctor's engraving ( the personal doctor of the monastery had successfully voted against the route in 1766) over houses . In 1770 the Rhine harbor was located at the Salzhaus below the Ochsensteige in Waldshut. The funeral procession through the Laufenburger Tor reached the Waldhut town hall in Sonnengasse . He left the city through the Waldkirchnertor into the Schmitzinger valley. The funeral procession in Waldkirch reached the Blasian Zwing und Bann through the hospital forest . The highest point on the route in Höchenschwand was reached via Oberalpfen , Remetschwiel , Brunnadern and Tiefenhäusern . From there a steeply sloping section led across the Alb valley to St. Blasien.

Expansion plans for the burial place in St. Blasien

Joseph II in Königsfelden

On July 26, 1777, Emperor Joseph II paid a brief visit to Königsfelden on his return trip from France, leaving St. Blasien to the left of the route. He had previously met Martin Gerbert in Freiburg and attended a high mass celebrated by the prince abbot in Freiburg Cathedral on July 20 . The emperor's obvious lack of interest in the ancestral crypt in St. Blasien was not conducive to the further expansion of the project. The emperor was busy these days with a much more far-reaching project. As compensation for the Bavarian succession he claimed he intended to leave all possessions west of Constance to Karl Theodor von der Pfalz . The Bavarian War of Succession ended the company in the following two years.

Planned princely crypt in the cathedral crypt

Riss d'Ixnard's of the royal crypt, 1791

The princely crypt in the crypt of the Cathedral of St. Blasien was still in the planning phase when the funeral wagon arrived. Therefore, the bones packed in boxes were temporarily stored in the monastery archive. The monumental design by d'Ixnard for a large crypt with a skylight under the dome was not carried out. In 1778, after a high mass, the boxes were moved to a more modestly dimensioned grave under the organ and buried there again. D'Ixnard's design of an altar or a tomb for the crypt has been preserved as a watercolor drawing in St. Paul's Abbey.

For the altar of the crypt, Maria Theresa gave the prince abbot a bust reliquary of St. Leopold, probably made by Joseph Moser .

The frequently used designation Habsburg crypt is misleading, as Kuno von Rheinfelden and other high nobility were buried in St. Blasien who did not belong directly to the House of Habsburg. Therefore, the earlier name of the royal crypt is more appropriate.

The empty burial chamber served as a potato cellar after the Benedictine monks emigrated.

Relocation to St. Paul in Lavanttal

Storage box for the bones
in the crypt of St. Paul in Lavanttal
Photo: Gerhard Trumler
Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

Epitaph with the coat of arms of the Habsburgs in St. Paul in the Lavant Valley

In 1805, Baron Ferdinand Fechtig von Fechtenberg regulated the liquidation of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Blasien, which had received an offer from Emperor Franz II to move to St. Paul Abbey in Lavanttal . The Benedictines under their last abbot Berthold Rottler left St. Blasien in September 1807. They left the crypt behind for the time being, as the Grand Ducal Baden authorities requested a written request from Vienna before they were taken away. On April 22, 1808 the remaining Benedictine Frowin Master was able to transfer the bones in their boxes to Spital am Pyhrn Abbey . Since the collegiate monastery there was too small for them and the climate too harsh, the convent moved to St. Paul in Lavanttal as early as 1809, so that the bones did not reach Carinthia permanently until 1809 .

In 1818 the bones were consecrated for the fourth time and reburied in a specially built tumba in St. Paul . Since the Tumba, built by the master builder Pietro Rudolfi from Udine, was soaked due to construction defects, the rotted boxes had to be replaced in 1917 and buried for the fifth time the following year. The last reburial and burial followed in 1936 after the Tumba was torn down. The current magazine of the bones boxes lies under the high altar of the collegiate church of St. Paul.

literature

  • Martin Gerbert, Franz Kreutter : Solemn translation of the imperial-royal- also ducal-Austrian tallest corpses from their grave cities of Basel and Königsfelden in Switzerland to the princely monastery of St. Blasien in the Black Forest in the 14th winter month of 1770 (Uffizin of the St. Blasien monastery ), St. Blasien, 1770. [1]
  • Martin Gerbert: De translatis Habsburgo-Austriacorum principum, eorumque coniugum cadaveribus ex ecclesia cathedrali Basileensi et monasterio Koenigsveldensi in Helvetia ad Conditorium novum monasterii S. Blasii in silva nigra , Typis San-blasianis, 1772; New edition in 1785 under the title: Crypta San Blasiana nova principum Austiacorum translatis eorum cadaveribus ex cathedrali ecclesia Basileensi et monasterio Koenigsfeldensi in Helvetia anno MDDLXX ad conditiorum novam monasterii S. Blasii in nigra siva . [2]
  • Ernst Adolf Birkenmayer : A Habsburg funeral ceremony . In: Contributions to the history of the parish Waldshut, Freiburg Diocesan Archive, Volume 21, Herderverlag, Freiburg 1890, pp. 254-257. [3]
  • Johannes Gut: The Habsburg crypt of Prince Abbot Martin Gerbert. In: From the history of St. Blasien in the Black Forest, ed. v. the city of St. Blasien, Bühl / B. 1997, pp. 62-82.
  • Franz Ludwig v. Haller von Königsfelden : Representation of the strangest Swiss battles from 1298 to 1499, Wallis, 1826, note 60 on p. 205. [4]
  • Leopold Scheichenberger: The Habsburg crypt in St. Paul in Carinthia. In: Archives for Geography, History, State and War Art. Volume 9, 1820, pp. 270ff.
  • Richard Strelli: St. Paul, the first Habsburg final resting place : (Appendix: Grave monuments in the Habsburg crypt at St. Blasien. Pen drawings by Marijan Marolt.), Komm.-Verlag der Buchh. "Styria", 1918.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See catalog Landesausstellung St. Paul, 1997, Volume I, 18.11 on p. 315.
  2. ↑ Cf. Christiane Thomas, Austrian State Archives: Seven Hundred Years of Switzerland. Berger 2001, p. 34.
  3. ^ Emil Maurer : The art monuments of the canton of Aargau. Volume 3. Birkhäuser, Basel 1954, p. 64f.
  4. ^ Franz Ludwig Haller: Representation of the strangest Swiss battles from 1298 to 1499. Wallis, 1826, note 60 on p. 205.
  5. ↑ Martin Gerbert, Franz Kreutter: Feyerliche translation of the imperial-royal- also ducal-Austrian highest corpses from their graves in Basel and Königsfelden in Switzerland after the princely monastery St. Blasien in the Black Forest the 14th winter month 1770. (Uffizin of the monastery St. Blasien), St. Blasien, 1770.
  6. ^ Franz Josef Baer: Chronicle of road construction and road traffic in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Berlin, Springer, 1878, p. 244
  7. ↑ Dieter Speck: A Little History of the Front Austria. G. Braun, Karlsruhe 2010, p. 192f.
  8. ↑ See catalog of the St. Paul State Exhibition, 1991, number 18.10, Volume 1, p. 315.
  9. ↑ See catalog of the St. Paul State Exhibition, 1991, number 18.13, volume 1, p. 316.
  10. ↑ Cf. archive of the Society for Older German History for the Promotion of a Complete Edition of the Source Writings of German Stories of the Middle Ages, Volume 1, Frankfurt, 1820, p. 270.
  11. ^ Hermann Lauer: History of the Catholic Church in the Grand Duchy of Baden: From the founding of the Grand Duchy to the present. Herder, Freiburg 1908, p. 37.
  12. ↑ See catalog Landesausstellung St. Paul 1991, Volume 1, Number 18.14, p. 317.