Allerengelberg Charterhouse
Allerengelberg was a monastery of the Carthusian Order in Schnalstal , a northward side valley of the Vinschgau in South Tyrol , Italy . The Charterhouse was dissolved in the course of the Josephine reforms in 1782. About 40 families settled in their buildings in the following decades. A new village gradually emerged: Karthaus , today's capital of the Schnals community .
Geographical location
Karthaus is located on a 1327 m high, narrow slope on the orographic right side of the Schnalstal. The basin-shaped terrace about 10.6 km from the valley entrance is not visible from the valley road. A short road leads to it from the valley floor, which at this point begins to become wider and flatter. There is a spacious parking lot in the center of the village, which can be easily accessed by cars and buses.
sightseeing
For unsuspecting visitors, there is nothing to immediately indicate that they are in a village that emerged from a monastery complex. That is why it is advisable to consult a display board that is set up in the main square near the church before visiting it. A massive, cube-shaped stone with two carved indentations can be seen under the display board, which used to be protected with an iron cover. That is the old sacrificial stock of the monastery, which used to stand at the old monastery portal - today still called the portes - next to the Anna church. It is today's parish church, was built at the same time as the monastery and previously served as a servant church. Because a significant number of servants was responsible for the economy in the monastery, for the feeding of the monks. There were 23 when the monastery was dissolved. The monastery servants had to take over the defense of the convent in an emergency. The actual monastery church, the more beautiful and larger Michael’s Church, was converted into a barn and a stable.
Starting from the display board towards the southeast, the lower cloister is entered, only parts of which have been preserved. After just a few steps, the upper cloister and the large, slightly sloping, grass-covered inner courtyard of the cloister come into view. The pointed arch portals and the cross barrel vault testify that the complex was built in the Gothic period. The spacious cell houses of the monks were built on the outside (four each on the upper and lower cloister, two on the south-eastern part). The houses were rebuilt or rebuilt after they were taken over by the new residents. The path leads past a small herb garden, which is planted with aromatic and medicinal herbs in summer and is intended as a reminder of the gardening work of the monks who grew herbs, flowers and garden fruits in their own garden in front of their houses. In the cloister, next to the front doors, individual wall openings, locked with wooden crates, are visible, the drawer holes through which the monks were given the food - around the corner - in order to avoid visual contact with the bearer.
The monastery was surrounded by a high curtain wall with corner turrets, some of which is still preserved. The defensive wall is equipped with loopholes and had a wooden battlement , the visible traces of which are the wall openings for the docks, for the girders of the battlement. The ban garden is adjacent to the inside of the defensive wall, where each monk had his own garden with fresh water supply.
The spacious main square of the village used to be the cloister, of the Prior house , now high sticking , called by former gatehouse of the Anna Church, from the library of the monastery church, the small cloister of the former commercial and residential buildings for the servants surrounded has been.
In a back yard is the father's kitchen , a building with a pyramid-shaped mantle that ends in an elongated chimney structure. In this old kitchen there was still a large open stove until 1956. Some rudimentary relief-like sculptures are built into the outer walls of the father's kitchen:
- A human head that represents the unredeemed Adam , the wild, restless and unrestrained person who is possessed by the devil and which therefore could not be placed inside the house.
- The paradise snake with a two-part tongue, a fully eaten body, a tapered tail and an egg-shaped fruit next to the head. She was considered a seductress to gluttony.
- A representation of an eagle is visible above the snake; it is the Hohenstaufen eagle as a symbol of the lower jurisdiction that the monastery exercised over eight courtyards in Schnalstal.
former monastery kitchen
The unsaved Adam at the Paterkuchl
The fountain in the main square is remarkable. The bronze figures created by the sculptor Martin Rainer from the valley make a reference to the history of the Carthusian Order. The Saint Bruno comes with his six companions to Grenoble and from the local bishop received with open arms. On the other side, the emperor is depicted, raising his hands in a dismissive position towards the monks, symbolizing the expulsion of the monks. One of the monks turns his head back to the emperor, expressing helpless bewilderment and disbelief at this approach.
On a part of the basin, which is now taken up by the large parking lot, there used to be a fish pond surrounded by a bank wall. The Carthusian monks were forbidden to eat meat; however, they were allowed to eat fish. They also had fishing rights on parts of the Etsch in Vinschgau and on the Haider See on the Reschenpass . Countless petitions by the monastery to the court have been handed down, in which it complains about illegal fishing in those waters, so that it would have difficulty providing its inmates with the main food.
In the monastery wall there is the Holy Sepulcher Chapel , which can also be visited.
Remains of the monastery wall
Holy Sepulcher Chapel
Inside of the chapel
history
founding
The founder of the monastery Allerengelberg ( mons omnium angelorum ) was the Tyrolean sovereign Heinrich , Duke of Tyrol and Carinthia and briefly from 1307 King of Bohemia . The sovereign's own castle Schnals was planned as the original location (today Katharinaberg ). However, the formulation of the foundation deed of January 25, 1326 allows for alternative locations. In 1329, for unknown reasons, the monks moved to the forest terrace of Mons Cafril (Gorf ⇐ capra; Geißberg) further into the valley. The monastery was opened in 1332. The first prior came from the Carthusian monastery of Mauerbach near Vienna . Afterwards, the Buxheim Charterhouse near Memmingen and the Mauerbach Monastery alternated as the place of origin of the priors. The monastery inmates consisted of the prior, the vicar , the antiquarian, the procurator (conductor) and nine monks. The monastery community also had two lay brothers , one was a cellar master, and the other ran the pharmacy and was both a bloodline and a razor. Around 1350 the castle Senales (was Snalse ) by the monks of the monastery razed to prevent a future lord could pave the monastery inconvenience. The monastery belonged to the diocese of Chur under canon law and was referred to in German-language documents as "goczhaus Allerengelperg in Snalls Carthuser ordens vnd Churer bistumbs" (1437).
Furnishing
In the letter of foundation, the sovereign gives the monastery the right of patronage to Schnals Castle with the associated Mairhof, to his two Gorfhöfe in Schnals, to eight other Schnalser Höfe (Walchhof, Hof im Wasser, Oberperfl, Niederhof, Leithof, Pretrach, Kofl and Wies in Kurzras ) and the parish of Naturno. Later other Schnalser farms were added, such as the Pinaudhof and the Pifrolhof near the monastery, which were supposed to round off the monastic agriculture, the Dursthof near the Schnalsburg, so that the monastery had 15 farms in the Schnalstal alone. The sovereign later handed over the building rights to the monastery at the Platthof in Schnals and at various wine yards in Staben and Kastelbell, the fishing rights in the Haider See and in the part of the Etsch between Töll and Eyrs as well as 50 loads of salt from the Saline Hall near Innsbruck and 100 Yhren annually ( about 80 hectoliters) of wine. Lower jurisdiction over eight Schnalser courtyards was transferred to the monastery, as well as the right of asylum, freedom from customs duties and the right to take shelter in four houses in Innsbruck , Hall, Gries near Bozen and Meran .
Peasant confusion
In the second half of May 1525, insurgent peasants broke into the monastery, plundered it and destroyed some of the documents and the land register . The collection of documents was created and rebuilt at the instigation of the Tyrolean government between 1547 and 1549. A second peasant storm on the Charterhouse, headed by the miller Balthasar Dosser from Lüsen, was thwarted at the last moment in 1562 when his wife reported herself to the authorities. In 1583 the monastery is said to have been stormed again by farmers. At the time, the monastery referred to the foundation letter and wanted to claim ownership of the farm in the event of the death of a childless farmer. A high state authority instead decreed that in the event of the death of the Baumann or his wife - whether heirs or not - could get the best cattle, the so-called death cattle, from the stables. This decision permanently caused conflicts between the farmers and the monastery until a satisfactory agreement was finally reached in 1725.
Acquisition of the Gaienhof in Marling
In 1619 the monastery acquired a large winery in Marling for 7,500 guilders . An uncomfortable side effect was the frequent drought from which the vineyards in this area suffered. In order to remedy this water shortage, Michael Baych (1723–1737) had the idea of building an irrigation canal from the Töll to Marling during the priory. A suggestion in this sense was also made palatable to the municipality of Marling, which eventually joined the project. Work began in 1737. The high costs caused displeasure in both the monastery and the municipality of Marling and let the advantages of the Marlinger Waal fade into the background for years.
The mistake of the Empress Maria Theresa
Most of the priors were impeccable, honest and capable people who administered the monastery in accordance with the objectives of the order and brought it forward. After the recall of Prior Gabriel von Froschauer, under whom the Marling Waal had been completed, the monastery of the Austrian province of the order was closed in 1756 at the instigation of Empress Maria Theresa . She herself appointed the Carthusian Max Maurisberg from the Mauerbach monastery and appointed him first prelate in Schnals. However, this was a pleasure-seeking person, a gambler who squandered the monastery fortune in the years that followed and made it through. It was not until 1776 that the convent was recalled. His successor, the prelate Ambrosius Winkler, who as Rittmeister had participated in the entire Seven Years' War, made the religious community forget this twenty years of mismanagement through his moral integrity.
The abolition of the monastery
On February 5, 1782, the Gubernialrat Karl Ignaz von Schenk presented to the monastery and informed the assembled religious community of the repeal, which had been adopted as part of the Josephine reforms . The repeal was due to the very highest resolution of November 30, 1781, according to which all monasteries of both sexes that were not concerned with nursing, pastoral care or teaching would be abolished. The inmates had to leave the monastery within five months. The property of the monastery would be sold and the proceeds would go to a religious fund.
Sale and creation of the village of Karthaus
In 1783, two administrators were appointed to handle the sale. In 1786 Monsignor Conte Francesco Castracane from Fano near Urbino bought the monastery buildings with the associated goods in the valley for 13,000 guilders without ever having seen them. He was played so badly by a duo, which consisted of one of the administrators and a former monastery servant, that he soon withdrew after a loss of 5,000 guilders. In 1794 the goods were auctioned by the government. Count Hans Hendl acquired the properties in the valley for 7,500 guilders and resold everything in small parcels for a total of 23,000 guilders. The former monastery was subsequently repopulated by farmers and craftsmen and turned into the village of Karthaus . The two churches, St. Michael and St. Anna, were excluded from the auction. St. Michael was given to the new church, which sold them. The buyer converted them into a stable and a barn.
Curiosities
On one of the arches in the upper cloister a representation of the sacrifice of Abraham could be seen up to the great fire. Isaac knelt on the pile of wood, blindfolded and hands tied. A short distance away, Abraham stood holding a clumsy rifle aimed at his son's head. Then an angel appeared from heaven and prevented the killing by peeing down on the gun lock. Under the picture was the rhyme: "Abraham you press around, an angel burns you on the ignition hole" .
literature
- Josef Rampold : Vinschgau . Athesia Publishing House, Bolzano 1974.
- Rudolf Baur: The Allerengelberg Charterhouse in Schnalstal . Self-published, Bolzano 1971.
- Erika Bauer: The translator Heinrich Haller from the Kartause Allerengelberg in Schnals , in: Kartäusermystik und -mystiker. Third International Congress on Carthusian History and Spirituality, Part 3, Salzburg, 1982, pp. 147–166 (= Analecta Cartusiana, 55: 3).
- Josef Weingartner : The art monuments of South Tyrol . Volume 2, Athesia Publishing House, Bozen 1991.
- About the economy in the Charterhouse Allerengelberg 1418–1531. The registrum rubum Montis Omnium Angelorum of the priors Laurentius, Johannes and Hieronymus . Ed., Incorporated. and come by Wolfgang G. Schöpf, Bautz, Nordhausen 2010.
- Helmut Stampfer: Schnals , in: Monasticon Cartusiense , ed. by Gerhard Schlegel, James Hogg, Volume 2, Salzburg 2004, 320-325.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolf Baur: The Allerengelberg Charterhouse , p. 28
- ^ Rudolf Baur: Die Kartause Allerengelberg , p. 31
- ^ Rudolf Baur: The Allerengelberg Charterhouse , p. 13
- ^ Rudolf Baur: The Allerengelberg Charterhouse , p. 4
- ^ Hannes Obermair : Bozen Süd - Bolzano Nord. Written form and documentary tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500 . tape 2 . City of Bozen, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-901870-1-8 , p. 85, no.1001 .
- ^ Rudolf Baur: The Allerengelberg Charterhouse , p. 6
- ^ Rudolf Baur: The Allerengelberg Charterhouse , p. 33
See also
- La Grande Chartreuse (France)
Coordinates: 46 ° 42 ′ 18.5 ″ N , 10 ° 54 ′ 36 ″ E