Johann Gallus Hill

Gemündener parish church

Old Town Hall in Gemünd

Johann Gallus Hügel (born December 2, 1664 in Gemünden am Main , Franconia , today Bavaria , † September 14, 1719 in Eggenburg , Lower Austria ) was a German master stonemason and sculptor of the Baroque era .

In Vienna and Lower Austria in particular, the name Hügel was changed to Högl, Högel, which is why it can be found in Felix Czeike's Historical Lexicon Vienna , Volume 3, as the Högl family .

Life

The parents Johann Franz Hügel and Margareta Feserin married on September 4, 1659 in the parish church of Gemünd. Three of her sons, Johann Gallus, Johann Jacob and Elias learned the stonemason trade.

Emigration to the stonemason centers Eggenburg, Kaisersteinbruch and Vienna

After the final victory over the Turks in Vienna (1683), building activity broke out. Vienna became a city of baroque architecture and had a strong pull on building professionals in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The Steinmetz Quarter Shops in Eggenburg, with the sculptor's stone, and in Kaisersteinbruch , with the hard- wearing Leitha limestone , the "Kaiserstein", are represented in all palaces and churches of this era in Vienna.

Johann Gallus Hügel is documented in 1692 as a master in the quarter drawer in Eggenburg in Lower Austria. Jacob Hügel, born in 1677, stayed in Gemünden and started his family here. The youngest brother Elias Hügel, born in 1681, learned the trade in the quarter drawer in the imperial quarry on Leithaberg .

Princely quarter town Eggenburg

Eggenburg was subordinate to the main hut in Vienna and in 1629 became an independent quarter store, a guild district. In the area around Eggenburg there were many individual quarries , some of which were also named after stonemasons, such as the Högl quarry . He was a quarry tenant and homeowner, a house on Long Line .

An entry for the year 1692 in the guild book confirms: ... Johann Gallus Hügel, master stonemason at Kühnring near Eggenburg, acquitted his apprentice Simon Stift. Including the five years of apprenticeship, he has been there as a master craftsman since 1687/1688.

Master Huegel took on a total of nine apprentices for training, the last, his son Johann Caspar , he could no longer acquit because he died in 1719. The co-master Andreas Steinböck became the new teacher and acquitted him in 1720.

Zwettl Abbey

Herzogenburg Abbey East Wing

Zwettl Abbey

In the chamber office accounts of the year 1701, on December 22nd, there is the contract of the Zwettl monastery with Gallus Hügl, bürgerl. stainmez in Eggenburg . Order for the delivery of door and window bricks, top and bottom cornices , especially in the monastery library.

An architectural drawing by Johann Gallus Hügel for the library portal is kept in the monastery archive, dated 1702.

Herzogenburg Abbey

The renovation of the monastery began with the laying of the foundation stone on March 25, 1714; Jakob Prandtauer was in charge of construction . First the south wing, or guest wing, was built and then the east wing up to the great hall.

With this large commission, the stone carving for the imperial hall in the monastery, Gallus Hügel entered literature. In a letter he wrote himself, he proves that Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach designed this hall. On April 22, 1716, he submitted a draft contract for the work on the new hall, and on April 29, the contract was signed. In a letter dated March 17, 1718, he stated that he ... still had the specifications for the contract sambt demolished by H. Fischerschen's Cobey ... in his hands.

Prelate Schmerling did not have the large hall built by Prandtauer, but commissioned Fischer von Erlach. This also explains that Prandtauer, who came to check regularly at the beginning, did not check the building from February 4, 1715 to December 29, 1716.

1718 gave Hill a stone where the bullet on the Francosbiz of large, saloon .

Brother Elias

Master stonemason Elias Hügel in the Imperial Quarry on Leithaberg , his youngest brother , was also working for Fischer von Erlach at the Imperial Church in Vienna at the time.

→ Main article : "Karlskirche" in the article Elias Hügel

Master stonemason Catharina Höglin

After Master Gallus Huegel's death, the widow Catharina continued the craft. In 1720 "his" window frames were installed in the great hall. Then she signed another contract for the production of stone parts for the hall and hall stairs - as a master stonemason.

Establishment of an Austrian stonemason dynasty

Gallus was married three times; there is little information about Sybilla and Anna Maria. He married Catharina Wödl, ​​daughter of the butcher , on January 13, 1709. The witnesses were the master stonemasons Andreas Steinböck and Mathias Strickner. The sons Johann Georg, Johann Caspar and Georg Andreas learned the stonemasonry and became masters. Her brother Joseph (Joachim) went the spiritual path as a monk of the Charterhouse Gaming .

testament

Eggenburg, parish church of St. Stephan

On July 27, 1719 he wrote his will , which among other things stipulates:

• ... because my son Joseph Vill, who is in Closter Gäming, tasted ..., he renounced the inheritance anyway and therefore has nothing more to demand.
• ... those twelve hundred guilders , which are in bank account in Vienna with an obligation of December 30, 1718 on capital at 6 per cent interest , and the obligation Mr. Johann Carl Trumler , master stonemason in Vienna, has in his hands, for which three children 400 guilders each give.
• ... wife Catharina is my sole universal heir ... she receives the house, all the land, money and property, my debt claims.

Gallus Högl died on September 14, 1719 at the age of 55.

The widow Catharina with her three children, aged five to nine, had to remarry in a trade. She chose Mathias Franz Strickner, stonemason and son from the best Eggenburg family, and married him on January 28, 1721.

literature

• Diocesan archive of Würzburg : Gemünden parish register from 1598 .
• Alfons Pfrenzinger: Main Franconian emigration to Hungary and Austrian hereditary lands . Series of publications on German research in Hungary, directed by Franz Anton Basch . Vienna 1941.
• City archive Eggenburg: Aufding and Freysagebuch the Eggenburg stonemasons' guild .
• Paul Buberl : Art topography of Zwettl Abbey .
• Hans Sedlmayr : Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Johann Gallus Huegel . 1956.
• Alois Kieslinger : Stone handicraft in Eggenburg and Zogelsdorf . In: Our home . Volume 8, No. 5–7, 1935.
• Gaspar Burghard: The white stone from Eggenburg, the Zogelsdorfer sand-lime stone and its masters . Reprint from The Waldviertel . Volume 4. 44th year, 1995.
• Helmuth Furch: Elias Huegel, master stone mason. 1681-1755 . Kaisersteinbruch 1992. ISBN 978-3-9504555-2-6 .
• Helmuth Furch : In: Mitteilungen des Mus.- u. Cultural association Kaisersteinbruch . ISBN 978-3-9504555-3-3 .

Master Johann Gallus Hügel . No. 22, 1992.

The Hügel family from Gemünden am Main . No. 42, 1996.

• Entry Högl Elias and family . In: Felix Czeike: Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 3, 1994.
• Helmuth Furch: Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch . 2 volumes. Museum and cultural association, Kaisersteinbruch 2002–2004. ISBN 978-3-9504555-8-8 .