Heiligkreuz Monastery (Kempten)

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Heiligkreuz pilgrimage church
Church interior

The Monastery of the Holy Cross was a convent of the Franciscan Observant in the district of Santa Croce of Kempten (Allgäu) in the diocese of Augsburg . Heiligkreuz was only created with the monastery. The patronage of the monastery, the Exaltation of the Cross , is celebrated on September 14th. A parish and pilgrimage church is part of the monastery. Because of the legend of the blood miracle, the place developed into a pilgrimage.

location

The monastery is the center of Heiligkreuz. In front of the parish and pilgrimage church there is a spacious village square around which a settlement has developed.

history

The monastery was built in connection with the pilgrimage at the site of a blood miracle. Legend has it that the farmer Elisabeth Hörner from the neighboring farm in Kreinings discovered five red water fountains while making hay on July 24th, 1691, which gushed out of the meadow for a quarter of an hour. These five sources have been associated with the five wounds of Christ on the cross. A little later, after the miracle could not be attributed to a natural cause according to a judicial investigation, a cross was erected at this point, to which whole communities made a pilgrimage and hoped for protection against diseases, cattle diseases, hailstorms or crop failures. In 1694, Prince Abbot Rupert von Bodman , with his episcopal rights, approved the construction of a small wooden chapel with a small house for the pilgrimage priest. In 1711 a larger stone chapel was built. On November 14, 1715, the archdeacon Albert von Falkenstein presented the keys to the chapel to the Provincial of the Strasbourg Observant Province , Father Sebastian Höß, the uncle of St. Crescentia von Kaufbeuren .

Finally, the Heiligkreuz monastery was founded in 1715, next to which the village of Heiligkreuz developed. A capitular of the abbey of Kempten looked after the pilgrims until the monastery was founded . When it was founded, the Franciscans took over the pilgrimage, which was temporarily housed in Schwabelsberg Castle.

The foundation stone for the hospice was laid on July 6, 1716, and the Franciscans moved into their new domicile on October 18, 1717. After the building had been extended in 1736, the monastery from 1738 was Convention and autonomously; In 1724 over 27,000 communicants were counted - another special appreciation of the monastery was given by the equipment with certified cross particles from Rome as well as relics of various saints. The Sacred Heart Brotherhood, which with two letters of grace from Pope Clement XII. has been confirmed, solemnly appointed Prince Abbot Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg on July 22, 1743 . A high point of the monastery was the year 1756/57, when over 37,000 communicants were counted.

September 29, 1786 Kempten abbot took Rupert of Neuenstein the consecration front of the church. His predecessor, Honorius Roth von Schreckenstein , had the choir renovated and refurbished.

On August 28, 1805, the monastery was dissolved in the course of secularization . The church silver was sent to Munich to be melted down, and the 1500 works in the monastery library were auctioned off. From 1807 to 1829 the Augustinians of the dissolved Augustinian monastery in Memmingen lived in the monastery buildings (in the sense of an abbey monastery). In 1829, after the death of the last Augustinian monk, an exposition subordinate to the city parish was established. In 1948 the bishop of Augsburg made the Holy Cross a parish . The pilgrimage church became the parish church, the parsonage and a primary school were housed in the monastery buildings. With the incorporation of the independent parish of Sankt Lorenz , and thus also from Heiligkreuz, to Kempten, Heiligkreuz became a city parish.

Based on the church consecration to the Holy Cross, the legend of the Holy Cross was created at the end of the 17th century. A label on the gallery describes what is happening. “A great miracle is presented here, with true blood gushing out at five o'clock.” In 1780 artists created the Holy Cross column in the middle of the church to commemorate the amazing blood miracle . Its elaborate structure is the only one of its kind and therefore a sight.

A street in the new building area of ​​Heiligkreuz is named after the discoverer of the blood miracle, the farmer Elisabeth Hörner.

Building description

Dimensions

The nave of the church is around 25 meters long, 15 meters wide and 16.5 meters high. The central room is about 8 meters long and wide, with 4.5 meters long side arms almost 13 meters wide. The high altar room is 6 meters long and 4.5 meters wide. The entire church is approximately 40 meters long and offers around 400 seats. The tower has an absolute height of 30 meters and a relative height of 11 meters above the choir roof ridge. The ridge of the nave is 24 meters high.

Tower, clock and bells

The tower is a simple roof turret, which is common in Franciscan churches. It was probably created when the nave was built with the redesign of the choir roof. The bell hanging there dates from 1732. A sketch from 1752 shows an onion dome; In 1764 the tower was rebuilt for two bells. The roof turret, which was still clad, was probably redesigned in 1830 in order to install a third bell. In 1764 a watch was obtained, which in 1803 was sold for seven guilders to Kempten and later from there for 32 guilders to Niederrieden .

In 1842 the church received a new clockwork including two dials for 263 guilders. In 1965 this clockwork was replaced by a modern tower clock system. The tower, which was renewed in 1892, was last statically secured in 1985 and received a new copper roof.

The bell has been three-part since 1830. The 120 kilogram Laurentius bell with the relief of the saint comes from this time. It was consecrated on June 2, 1830 in Augsburg by Bishop Ignaz Albert von Riegg . The smallest bell, weighing 55 kilograms, dates from 1732 and shows a crucifixion group and the heart of Jesus.

The blood miracle was shown by the bell from 1764, which broke in 1900 and was re-cast a year later. It was lost in 1917 as a metal donation by the German people and was replaced by the bell consecrated in 1920 in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1942 this was given back as part of the metal donation of the Second World War and six years later it was replaced by a 110 kg cross bell. The bells have been rung electro-automatically since 1962.

Furnishing

Column of blood

The column of blood in the nave

The towering column of blood in the central aisle of the nave is said to be at the approximate position of the blood miracle from 1691. The marbled base, latticed between the corner volutes, shows five carved blood fountains that interact with the main image on the opposite side of the lower gallery: five farmers watch the blood miracle with the Allgäu pre-Alpine landscape in the background. At the upper end of the obelisk-like column protrudes a god's eye , this is surrounded by eight putti with the tools of suffering as well as ears and vines.

The blood column was built in 1780, renovated in 1861 and 1907.

Frescoes and stucco

Ceiling frescoes

All frescoes refer to the monastery title of the cross. The program runs from west to east and begins with "Moses and the Exaltation of the Brazen Serpent". Then the stages of the Passion follow: Jesus falls with the cross, Jesus is nailed to the cross, Jesus dies on the cross and Jesus' body is taken from the cross. They come from the painter Balthasar Riepp , who was born in Kempten and who also painted the medallions on the side with the Lord's tools of passion.

The ceiling frescoes painted in the choir describe the history of the Holy Cross: In the chancel the finding of the cross by Empress Helena is depicted, the fresco of the main dome, signed by Johann Michael Koneberg , shows Emperor Herakulius of Byzantium with the cross that was abducted but recovered by him. He solemnly carries it to Jerusalem in the representation. When he reached the city gate, he could no longer carry the cross. Bishop Zacharias ordered him to take off his crown, cloak and shoes and to put on clothes of poverty like the Savior. A medallion with the portrait of Prince Abbot Honorius Roth von Schreckenstein has been inserted into this picture .


Altars

High altar

High altar and choir organ

The high altar, a cross altar , was renewed in 1768. Between the freely presented, marbled double columns occupied by rocaille vases, under the Heart of Jesus is the altar sheet . It shows the overcoming of hell and death. In front of it there is a Golgotha crucifixion group with Mary, Johannes and Magdalena on a mountain . The crucifix donated by Prince Abbot Rupert von Bodman in 1723 comes from Liebentann Castle and is marked 1623 on the base. The tabernacle has four putti.

pulpit

The pulpit , dating from 1764, shows the symbols of the evangelists on the base profile of the three-part marbled basket decorated with rocailles . The lid bears the halo of the Holy Spirit - putti with attributes denote the four original doctors of the church .

Baptismal font

The baptismal font was created in 1833 for 56 guilders by the stone carver Matthias Ott from Füssen . It is a round, classical red marble basin. The marbled wooden lid is decorated with gilded acanthus tendrils.

organ

Main organ

Joseph Huber donated an organ that was installed between 1739 and 1742. The single-manual instrument had twelve  registers and an independent pedal . Joseph Nägele, organ builder from Seebach, carried out a repair in 1836 and replaced the two bellows . Towards the end of the 19th century the instrument was lost, so that in 1904 the Hindelang brothers created a new work behind the baroque prospect in the style of the late romantic era with a pneumatic cone drawer and a free-standing console . The Kempten choir director Eugen Jochum (1863–1926, godfather of Eugen Jochum ) created the arrangement with 12 stops, distributed over a manual and pedal. In 1975, Gerhard Schmid replaced the mixture . Today the organ is a listed building. The prospectus has five axes and is decorated with openwork carvings. The elevated central round tower is flanked by two pipe fields with a mirror principle , which lead to the two corner towers of the same height. Angel figures making music crown the richly profiled cornice. The original disposition was as follows:

Manual CDEFGA – c 3
Principal 8th'
Dumped 8th'
Gamba 8th'
Octav 4 ′
flute 4 ′
Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Super octave 2 ′
Mixture II 2 ′
Cimbel II 1'
CDEFGA – a 0 pedal
Sub-bass 16 ′
Octave bass 8th'
trombone 8th'

Next to the main organ there was a small choir organ with seven registers, which was used to accompany the monks' singing. Only the prospectus remains of this work, which the Augsburg Franciscan Convent donated to the church in 1769. It comes from Johann Nepomuk Holzhey and is his first organ to be built.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Geiss: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church Heiligkreuz. 1990, p. 7.
  2. ↑ a b Geiss: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church Heiligkreuz. 1990, p. 8.
  3. ^ Michael Petzet : City and district of Kempten. (= Bavarian art monuments. Vol. 5), 1st edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1959, DNB 453751636 , p. 98.
  4. ↑ The painter Balthasar Riepp (1703-1764). Ehrenberg, Reutte 2003. ISBN 3-901821-02-3 .
  5. ↑ The choir director and composer Eugen Jochum on BMLO , accessed on December 2, 2016
  6. ^ Hermann Fischer, Theodor Wohnhaas: Historische Orgeln in Schwaben (=  94th publication of the Society of Organ Friends ). Schnell & Steiner, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7954-0431-2 , pp. 114 .
  7. ↑ Ulrich Höflacher: Johann Nepomuk Holzhey - a South German organ builder of classicism , p. 221 (PDF file; 418 kB), viewed July 1, 2013.

literature

  • Rudolf Geiss: Catholic parish and pilgrimage church Heiligkreuz. 1st edition, Verlag Schnell & Steiner, Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 978-3-7954-5542-2 .

Web links

Commons : Heiligkreuz Monastery (Kempten)  - Collection of images

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  N , 10 ° 16 ′ 57 ″  E