Felix Freywiller

Felix Freywiller (* 1659 in Kaisersteinbruch , western Hungary , today Burgenland ; † October 28, 1726 there ) was a Swiss journeyman stonemason in the Baroque era .

Felix Freywiller was the only journeyman stonemason from Kaisersteinbruch who was granted the honor of an epitaph in their guild church .

Life

His father Heinrich Freywiller came from Zurich in 1631 as a stonemason apprentice to the imperial quarry on Leithaberg , the center of Swiss-Italian architects near Vienna, the imperial residence of the Holy Roman Empire . The stonemason brotherhood appointed him master Pietro Maino Maderno , Prince Liechtenstein court stonemason , as his teacher. After five years he was acquitted as a journeyman. On August 5, 1654 he married Christina Wiegnerin, widow of the late Kaisersteinbrucher Leutgebs ( innkeeper ) Christoph Wiegner, and in 1664 his son Felix was born.

Felix naturally learned the stonemasonry, his teacher was the court stonemason Ambrosius Ferrethi , who worked on the new wing , the Leopoldine wing of the Hofburg . Then we lose sight of the journeyman Felix, only his epitaph tells more about his life.

His grave slab was exhibited in the Kaisersteinbruch Steinmetzmuseum . The text says:

ALHIER RUET THE BRAVE / FELIX FREYWILLER GEWESTER / STEINMEZ GESELL HAT / GEDIND THE EMPEROR 30 JAR / IS BORN ALHIER AND / OCTOBER 28TH ANNO 1726 / DIED HIS AGE / 67 JAR. GOD GRANT / IN AND ALL CHRISTIANS / BELIEVE A FREEDOM / RESURRECTION AND / ETERNAL LIFE. / AMEN

"Served the emperor for 30 years" , that was the emperors Leopold I , from 1705 Joseph I and from 1711 Karl VI. The "brave" one does not suggest an activity as a stonemason, but as a Swiss he had become a member of the satellite bodyguard and thus advanced to the emperor. The brotherhood had brought Felix into this honorable position through their influence at court and dressed him to the best. At that time you were working on orders for two large palaces, the Imperial Chancellery wing of the Vienna Hofburg and Hof Palace . The judge in the imperial quarry, court stonemason Elias Hügel , had arranged this memorial.

Appropriately, this referred to the important general Prince Eugene of Savoy , who also served three emperors loyally.

For Felix Freywiller the new large "St. Maria" bell , donated by the brotherhood, rang for the first time .

Archival material

• Heiligenkreuz Abbey Archive, Kaisersteinbruch, church books, registers, stonemason

literature

• Helmuth Furch , Heiligenkreuzer quarry becomes Kaiser quarry, Die Grabplatten , 1981. ISBN 978-3-9504555-0-2 .
• Helmuth Furch: In: Mitteilungen des Mus.- u. Cultural association Kaisersteinbruch . ISBN 978-3-9504555-3-3 .

Festschrift of the Kaisersteinbruch Church . No. 40.

• Helmuth Furch: Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch , Volume 1, Volumes Museum and Culture Association Kaisersteinbruch 2002, ISBN 978-3-9504555-8-8 ( digital copy ).
• Helmuth Furch: The brotherhood of the Kaisersteinbrucher stonemasons, a list 1650-1730 , 2007. ISBN 978-3-9504555-4-0 .