Martinstal Charterhouse near Crimmitschau
The Carthusian Monastery of Martinstal near Crimmitschau ( lat.Domus Transfigurationis Jesu Christi in valle Sancti Martini prope Chrymitzschau ; German also House of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ in the valley of St. Mertens an der Pleiße ) was a Carthusian monastery founded in 1478 near the town of Crimmitschau in the area of today's municipality of Neukirchen / Pleiße .
It was located in the Diocese of Naumburg , belonged to the Low German monastic province of the Carthusians and was housed in the buildings of the former Augustinian monastery Martinstal , but was expropriated by Elector Johann in 1531 . The complex was then converted into a manor , which gave its name to the Neukirchen district of CartHAUS . The Martinstal Charterhouse was the only Carthusian monastery in Saxony to date.
prehistory
Around 1222, on the initiative of the district judge Heinrich von Crimmitschau, around two kilometers south of the city, at the church under the patronage of St. Martin , a monastery was built by the Augustinian canons who took over pastoral care in the surrounding towns. In the 15th century it was badly affected by the Hussite invasions , the Saxon fratricidal war and several waves of plague , so that in the end only six canons lived in the complex.
Charterhouse Foundation
In 1478, the electoral widow Margaretha of Austria established the Carthusian monastery in Saxony. The second donor was the rich cloth merchant and bailiff of the Crimmitschau rulership, Hans Federangel from Zwickau († June 18, 1486). However, since the Carthusians do not provide parish pastoral care, Federangel had to have another church built as a replacement for this purpose, the new Martinskirche , which gave Neukirchen its name. This was consecrated in 1495 .
On December 1, 1478, Pope Sixtus IV confirmed the handover of the monastery complex to the Carthusian Order. The buildings in need of renovation were restored by 1480. The first five monks came to Martinstal in 1479 from the Erfurt Charterhouse under the direction of the former Erfurt prior Jodocus Christen. Elector Ernst and Duke Albrecht placed the monastery under their protection and exempted it from all taxes and duties. In the meantime, the monastery had to provide a chariot with twelve horses for military journeys.
Jodocus Christen was followed by a certain Gerlach († 1485) and later Thilmann Mosenus, former rector of the University of Trier .
Possessions
The economic equipment of the monastery included property taxes from the surrounding villages, as well as money for loan transactions and (short-term) real estate in Zwickau. In addition, the Carthusians had a small amount of livestock farming and leased fields and meadows. Four ponds belonged to the monastery, firewood and construction wood were supplied by a nearby forest, which the Schönburgers had given to the monastery in 1291. The monastery also had a mill within the monastery walls, as well as - by far at least 1349 - the so-called Angermühle. This mill was not farmed itself, but leased out. The Tinthnermühle, mentioned in 1529, was also leased. The Augustinian convent had a hammer mill built and leased it in 1473 .
seal
The Charterhouse named itself after the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord . Accordingly, the convent seal shows “in the middle standing Christ in a long robe. The halo lies around his head, and rays penetrate the field of seals from above on both sides. He holds the globe with the cross in his left hand, and raises his right hand to bless. The prophets who were present at the transfiguration kneel on either side, Moses and Elias. The legend is separated by a sharp edge and reads: Sigillum. Conventus. Domus. Transfigurationis. Jesus. Christ. Ordinis. Carthusiensis. "
Repeal
Already in 1526, the monastery was by a commission Elector Johann visitiert and for the purpose of secularization inventoried. The actual transfer into electoral property took place on September 15, 1531. The first secular administrator was the noble Heinrich von Ende, who, however, had to resign at the beginning of 1533 due to errors in the administration of the office. He had quartered the monks in the Cistercian convent in Frankenhausen , where they were unwelcome, and had pigs driven into the monastery church. In addition, the monastery documents were no longer accessible. The next administrator was Nikolaus von Kitzscher, then his son.
Compensation for the inmates
Most of the monks still present at the sequestration were compensated with around 35 guilders. As the last monk, Eoban Güntzel joined the Reformation, revoked his religious vows, married and received a severance payment from Duke Johann the Constant amounting to 35 Guilder, whereupon the Duke withdrew the monastery property. Güntzel became pastor in Gablenz ; the former prior Andreas Seitz received 50 guilders and became pastor at the town church in Crimmitschau.
Conversion into a manor
On July 8, 1545 Hans were of Bora at the request of his brother Martin Luther for 1,300 guilders, the Vorwerk with its buildings, 140 bushels of agricultural land, the mill, four fish ponds and the so-called Culpner Thicket of Duke Johann Friedrich I as a fief sold . However, Hans von Bora sold it to Hans von Weißbach as early as 1560, who very soon ceded it to the Freiberg captain Ernst von Beust .
In 1576, what was now the Carthaus manor was sold to Carl von Schönitz for 4100 guilders, followed by Albrecht von Schönitz in 1602. Under this, the Carthaus estate got into hapless real estate deals several times and finally in 1652 to Albrechts von Schönitz's son-in-law, the Swedish Rittmeister Georg von der Hayde. After his death in 1687, his son had the estate auctioned and in 1703 the Altenburg raft commissioner Tobias Leube was enfeoffed with it. However, since the latter soon went bankrupt, the estate was auctioned off to Georg Ernst von Zehmen , with whose death the estate reverted to the sovereign as a settled fief without a male heir. In 1725, Friedrich August the Strong transferred the Carthaus estate to his privy councilor Heinrich von Bünau , from whom it came to Carl August von der Planitz . He sold it to the brothers Johann Sigismund and Johann Wilhelm Gerlach, whose family kept the manor until the 19th century.
The Neukirchen district of CartHAUS was formed around the manor . No parts of the building of the former monastery should be visible today.
See also
literature
- Gerhard Schlegel: Crimmitschau , in: Monasticon Cartusiense , ed. by Gerhard Schlegel, James Hogg, Volume 2, Salzburg 2004, 428–433.
- Harm Wiemann: History of the Augustinian Monastery of St. Martin and the Karthauses near Crimmitschau, Crimmitschau 1941.
- Georg Wehse: The book inventory of the Charterhouse at Crimmitschau, in: Collecting, copying, spreading. On the book culture of the Carthusians yesterday and today, ed. by Sylvain Excoffon and Coralie Zermatten (Analecta Cartusiana 337), Saint-Étienne 2018, 473–498.
- Gustav Adolf Poenicke: Album of the manors and castles in the Kingdom of Saxony, Volume 4: Erzgebirgischer Kreis, Leipzig [1856], 33–36.
- Maisons de l'Ordre des Chartreux. Vues et notices, Volume 4, Parkminster 1919, 257–259 ( digital ) Historically somewhat inaccurate, but with images from the 20th century.