Carmelite monastery Rottenburg

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Coordinates: 48 ° 28 ′ 32.7 ″  N , 8 ° 56 ′ 1.1 ″  E

Neckar front of the Carmelite monastery

The Carmelite monastery in Rottenburg am Neckar is a baroque building from the 17th century, which today houses the seminary , the diocesan museum and the diocesan library of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese .

history

Former Carmelite monastery and today's Johann-Baptist-Hirscherhaus in Rottenburg

Count Albert II of. In 1276 Hohenberg gave the Carmelite mendicant order a place on the banks of the Neckar to build a monastery. At this point the moated castle of the Lords of Rotenburg is suspected, who ruled the region before the Counts of Hohenberg . In 1281 the foundation stone for the construction of the monastery was laid. The Bishop of Constance confirmed the foundation in 1292, which was consecrated in the same year on the day of the Most Holy Trinity . In the second half of the 15th century, the monastery was rebuilt after the first building had become dilapidated. Since 1534, the monastery was a focus of the Reformation efforts in Rottenburg. Three years later the convent, which at the end of the 14th century had 20 monks, consisted of only two monks in addition to the prior. The complete dissolution of the monastery could only be prevented by the energetic intervention of the Provincial Father Andreas Stoss, a son of the sculptor Veit Stoss . At the end of the 16th century, the monastery had recovered with 20 monks. Against strong opposition in the convent, the stricter version of the rule of the order was adopted in 1651. During the city fires in 1644 and 1735, the archive and library burned down along with the entire monastery complex and had to be rebuilt afterwards. During the Enlightenment, the convent was reduced in size: in 1783 there were only eight, in 1792 only six priest-monks. After Rottenburg was taken over by Württemberg, the monastery was dissolved in 1806. The monks were partly used as secular clergy, partly retired. The monastery property was sold or leased. The monastery buildings were first used as barracks. The seminary of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart has been located in the building since 1817. The choir of the then completely cleared church serves as the house chapel. The converted ship initially housed apartments for clergymen; from the first half of the 20th century it was the location of church offices and the diocesan library. After a fundamental renovation from 1991 onwards, the diocesan museum and library have been housed in the nave since 1996.

Architecture and equipment

From 1281 the monastery was built directly on the Neckar. In 1475/77, under the direction of master Hans Schwarzacher, the builder of the Rottenburg cathedral tower , the new construction of a Gothic four-wing complex took place. After the devastating city fires of 1644 and 1735, the church and monastery were re-consecrated in 1747. The plans for this still existing new building came from the Hohenzollern building inspector Hermann Schopf from Hechingen . The sculptor and plasterer Josef Anton Feuchtmayer from Mimmenhausen , the Carmelite brother Modestus also worked as a sculptor and cabinet maker as well as the painters Josef Adam Mölk from Vienna and the prince-bishop's court painter Franz Sebald Unterberger from Bressanone. Of the extremely rich church furnishings, only a confessional outside Rottenburg in the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Obernau has been preserved. In the seminary there are some good carpentry and plastering work, e.g. B. in the dining room.

Today the building is used as a seminary. The church, profaned in 1806, took on the diocesan museum and the diocesan library after a major renovation. The former choir of the church is used as the house chapel of the seminary.

Diocesan Museum

The Diocesan Museum was founded in 1862 and has a comprehensive collection of sacred sculptures and panel paintings from the 13th to 18th centuries. The painting of the 15th and 16th centuries forms a special focus. Most of the works of art come from southwest Germany. The treasury houses one of the most extensive collections of reliquary jars with examples from the 2nd to the 19th century. The director of the museum was Wolfgang Urban from 1992 to April 1, 2013 . Since his departure, it has been headed by the art historian Melanie Prange.

Diocesan Library

The diocesan library was founded in 1916 as a special scientific library and comprises 150,000 volumes that can be used by everyone. These include 116 incunables and 30,000 titles that appeared before 1800. Parts of the monastery library were also preserved here. In addition, the library looks after the holdings of the regional chapter libraries in the deans of the diocese with a further 150,000 volumes.

see also: Rottenburg Seminary

literature

  • Dieter Manz, in Rottenburger Miniatures Volume 3, pp. 39ff., 65ff., 77ff.
  • Wolfgang Urban, museum guide
  • Adalberg Baur, Rottenburg am Neckar, p. 62.f, ISBN 3-87437-109-3

Web links