Břevnov Abbey

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Benedictine Archabbey Břevnov in Prague

The pin Břevnov also Erzabtei Břevnov (Czech: Arciopatství sv Vojtěcha a sv Markéty.. Or Břevnovský klaster ; German: pin Breunau ), a the Hl. Adalbert of Prague and Hl. Margareta of Antioch monastery dedicated the Benedictines in the Markétská ulice in the Prague district of Břevnov. It houses the baroque monastery church of St. Margaret's Basilica . Together with Broumov Abbey (Braunau in German) it forms the Břevnov-Broumov double abbey.

history

Břevnov Monastery was founded in 993 as the first Benedictine male monastery in Bohemia by St. Adalbert , the second bishop of Prague, founded with the support of Duke Boleslav II the Pious at the ducal court of Břevnov. It was settled with monks from the Bavarian monastery Niederaltaich . The Benedictine monasteries Broumov and Politz were founded from Břevnov in the 13th century. A document from Pope Innocent IV attests to a monastery brewery. It is the oldest documented brewery in Bohemia.

Romanesque crypt

The first three-aisled Romanesque crypt , the masonry of which has been preserved under the choir of the monastery church, was built in the 11th century during the reign of Abbot Meginhard. A Gothic church was built in its place in the 13th century . After the monastery and church had been destroyed in the Hussite Wars , the abbot and convent fled to Broumov Abbey in 1420 . This began the era of the Břevnov-Broumov double monastery, whose abbot had his seat in Břevnov until the 20th century. In 1672 the monastery acquired Sloupno, halfway between Břevnov and Broumov .

St. Margareta Abbey Church
Interior of St. Margaret's Basilica

After the Thirty Years' War , the monastery building and church were rebuilt under Abbot Thomas Sartorius († 1700). Today's Baroque complex , which is important in terms of art history, was built between 1708 and 1740 under Abbot Othmar Daniel Zinke according to plans by Christoph Dientzenhofer . The interior design of the Basilica of St. Margareta ( bazilika sv. Markéty ) was headed by his son Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer from 1708–1715 . Karl Joseph Hiernle created the statues of St. Benedict and St. Nepomuk , the facade sculptures were created by Mathias Wenzel Jäckel . The altar paintings are by Peter Johann Brandl , the ceiling painting by Johann Jakob Stevens von Steinfels .

The ceiling fresco The Miracle of St. Günther in the prelate hall (Czech Tereziánský sál ) of the monastery was created by Cosmas Damian Asam . The stucco work comes from his brother Egid Quirin Asam .

The Břevnov Monastery and its monks also had a difficult time in the 20th century. In 1939 the two houses were separated: the German Benedictines remained under Abbot Dominik in Braunau (Broumov), while the Czech monks in Břevnov got an independent abbey with their own monastery head. The monastery building was occupied by the Wehrmacht during World War II . The oppression by the communist government of Czechoslovakia was followed by expropriation in 1950, after the church was opened by Pope Pius XII in 1948 . for minor Basilica had been raised.

Abbot Anastáz Opasek was arrested in 1949 and sentenced to life imprisonment in a show trial for “high treason and espionage” and released on parole ten years later. He was banned from his profession , worked as a bricklayer and warehouse worker and returned to his post for a short time in 1968. After the crackdown on the Prague Spring , he went into exile in Germany from 1969 to 1990 . He and other confreres found refuge in the Benedictine Abbey of Braunau in Rohr in Bavaria for 21 years. The former Augustinian monastery in Rohr , Lower Bavaria, which had been secularized since 1803, was revived in 1946 by the German Benedictines expelled from Broumov after the Second World War .

→ For the further history of the displaced Benedictines, see the entry Kloster Rohr (Lower Bavaria) .

Restored baroque orangery

After the political upheaval of 1989, the dilapidated monastery buildings were returned to the Benedictines by Czechoslovakia . With the support of foreign Benedictine communities and the state authorities, the building fabric was saved and the monastery church and monastery buildings were subsequently renovated. In 1993 the 1000th anniversary was celebrated. Pope John Paul II. Rose pin Břevnov this occasion to Abbey and visited it in 1997 as part of a pastoral visit.

Today the monks take care of the local parish and the pilgrimage church of Our Lady of Victory on the White Mountain. Since 1998 the Archabbey has published works on early Christian spirituality and the "Pietas Benedictina" series. The latter is intended to convey to the readers the monastic tradition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. In 2011, following on from the centuries-old tradition of brewing beer in the Břevnov Monastery, the Břevnovský pivovar monastery brewery was founded.

On November 21, 2017, the Convention of the monastery chose his longtime Prior Administrator Father Prokop Siostrzonek the second abbot of the pen. On February 7, 2018, the long-sought reunification of the Břevnov (Breunau) and Broumov (Braunau) abbeys became legally binding by a decree of the Vatican Congregation . The Archabbot can now (again) bear the title Archabbot of Břevnov and Broumov .

Monastery chief

  • Meginhard (11th century)
  • (Jan) Benno I. Falkus von Falkenberg (1621–1646)
  • Alexius Hübner (1646–1652)
  • Augustin Jeronim Seifert von Löwenthal (1652–1663)
  • Thomas Sartorius (1663-1700)
  • Othmar Daniel Zinke (1700–1738)
  • Benno II. Löbel (1738–1751)
  • Fridrich Grundtmann (1752–1772)
  • Franz Stephan Rautenstrauch (1773–1785)
  • Jakub II. Chmel (1786-1805)
  • Fortunat Böhm (1805-1818)
  • Placidus Benes (1818–1844)
  • Jan Nepomuk Rotter (1844–1886)
  • Rupert Smolík (1886–1887)
  • Bruno Čtvrtečka (1887–1922)
  • Wilhelm Rudolf (1922–1926)
  • Dominik Prokop (1929–1939, until 1969 Abbot of Braunau Monastery)
  • Anastáz Opasek (as prior 1938–1947, as abbot 1947–1999, from 1993 archabbot )
  • Prokop Siostrzonek (as Prior-Administrator 1999-2017; as Archabbot since 2017)

literature

  • Dagmar Hejdová / Pavel Preiss / Libuše Urešowá (ed.), Thousand Years of Benedictine Monastery in Břevnov [993-1993] . Edited by [the] Benedictine Abbey of St. Margaret in Prague-Břevnov. Prague 1993 [Exhibition catalog on the occasion of the millennium celebrations of the foundation of the monastery, from April 17 to October 10, 1993]
  • Joachim Bahlcke , Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of historical places . Volume: Bohemia and Moravia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 329). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-32901-8 .
  • Erhard Gorys , Czech Republic. Culture, landscape and history in Bohemia and Moravia (= DuMont art travel guide Czech Republic ), DuMont, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-7701-2844-3 .
  • Knaur's Art Guide Czech Republic , Droemer Knaur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-426-26609-1 .
  • Milada Vilimková, Johannes Brucker: Dientzenhofer. A Bavarian master builder family in the baroque era . Rosenheimer Verlagshaus, Rosenheim 1989, ISBN 3-475-52610-7 .
  • Johannes Hoffmann (as editor): A thousand years of Benedictines in the monasteries of Břevnov, Braunau and Rohr (= studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order and its branches. Supplementary volume 33). EOS, St. Ottilien 1993, ISBN 3-88096-623-0 (on behalf of the Benedictine abbeys Břevnov in Prague and Braunau in Rohr, Lower Bavaria).
  • Edmund Wagenhofer OSB : Reunification in the Czech Republic. Brevnov and Broumov abbeys. In: Erbe und Einsatz , 94 (2018), p. 215.

Web links

Commons : Břevnov Monastery  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Břevnovský pivovar website of the brewery
  2. ^ Abbey history. The history of the Benedictines of Braunau in Rohr on kloster-rohr.de, accessed on November 23, 2018
  3. ^ Bazilika sv. Markéty on gcatholic.org
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ Oznámení o volbě břevnovského arciopata , accessed on November 27, 2017.
  6. ↑ Johann Christoph Welak: chronicle of the city Habelschwerdt , quoted by Franz Volkmer in: history of the city Habelschwerdt , Franke's bookstore, Habelschwerdt, 1897

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 4 ″  N , 14 ° 21 ′ 25 ″  E