Heiligkreuztal Monastery

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Former monastery church, today's parish church of St. Anna
Interior of the monastery church
Cloister

Heiligkreuztal Monastery is a former Cistercian abbey and is located in the suburb of the same name in the municipality of Altheim (near Riedlingen) in Upper Swabia ( Baden-Württemberg ).

history

The Heiligkreuztal Monastery was founded in 1227. However, even before this time there was a monastic institution in the neighboring village of Altheim, which had emerged from a beguinage society and whose origins are set to the year 1140. This society, known as the “gray sisters” because of their clothing, turned to the abbot of the Cistercian Abbey of Salem with a request to join their monastery association. This was granted in 1204. It was under the supervision of Salem. The former feudal estate Wazzirschaphen could be bought, but only with the strong financial donation of Count Egon von Grüningen-Landauand his sister Hailwilgilde († 1240) made it possible to build a worthy accommodation. Hailwilgilde became the first abbess of the monastery.

The name Wasserschapfen changed to Heiligkreuztal as early as 1231 because, according to legend, Count Egon was able to acquire a splinter of the cross of Jesus from Reichenau Monastery and donated it to the monastery. In 1234, King Henry (VII) placed the monastery under his special protection. In 1251 it was established by Pope Gregory IX. confirmed and provided with the usual privileges (exemption from episcopal power, from secular courts, etc.) and with all the freedoms of the order of the Cistercians.

Since mainly daughters from aristocratic families were accepted there, the monastery flourished thanks to significant donations and was able to gradually acquire farms and entire villages in the area. At the end of the 18th century, he owned the towns of Andelfingen, Beuren, Binzwangen, Ertingen, Friedingen, Heiligkreuztal, Hundersingen and Waldhausen. In the heyday there were up to 125 nuns within the walls. The first monastery church, consecrated in 1256, was enlarged at the beginning of the 14th century.

Veronika von Rietheim , elected abbess in 1521 , ensured that the nuns got used to a strict religious life again. In addition, she continued the renovation of the monastery that her predecessor had already started. The minster was given a vault in 1532 and the refectory , chapter house and cloister were provided with a net vault. In 1552, during the Schmalkaldic War , the monastery was looted; Sweden did the same in 1632 and French troops in 1796.

As a result of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , Heiligkreuztal fell to the later Kingdom of Württemberg in 1803 and was dissolved. The nuns were initially allowed to stay until the last of them had to leave the monastery in 1843. Another source says that the last nuns were allowed to stay in Heiligkreuztal until their deaths.

Christ-Johannes group in Heiligkreuztal

The present shape of the monastery building dates from the beginning to the middle of the 18th century under the abbess Maria Holzapfel (1723–1761). The plasterer Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer designed the ceiling above the nuns choir in 1754 . At that time a document archive and the important library (over a thousand volumes) were also created. The donors and benefactors of the monastery received their grave in the monastery church out of gratitude .

The Cistercian monastery has been renovated by the architect Johannes Manderscheid since 1973, and in 2020 his son Christoph Manderscheid took over the ongoing renovation. So far, the cloister and cells, chapter house and chapel, the pharmacy building, the monastery wall and various small buildings have been renovated, as well as the abbess and brewery building, the underground access corridor, the granary (today: Makonde Museum), the building yard and the office building.

Furnishing

The best-known piece of equipment in the church is the Christ and John group set up in the apse , a wooden sculpture by an unknown artist from the first half of the 14th century. The devotional image , also called "St. John Minne", depicts Christ and his favorite disciple John .

In the cloister there is a painting cycle from the 16th century. It received its present appearance under Abbess Veronika von Rietheim. The ceiling painting depicts plant tendrils. The wall paintings in the north wing form a gallery of the abbesses with 25  portraits , which ends with Veronika von Rietheim. Next to it are pictures of the Passion of Christ . The life of various saints is depicted in the east wing. In 1970 the paintings suffered water damage. In 2017 the murals were examined in order to be able to restore them professionally.

Use of the former monastery building

Shortly after secularization, the buildings were used for a short time as an administrative office and then as the seat of a forestry department. Most of the valuable inventory as well as the library and archive came to Stuttgart. After the nuns finally moved out, the building fell into disrepair and was finally transferred to the Aulendorfer Stefanuswerk e. V. (today the Stefanus Community ), which created a place for Christian encounters there. The State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Wuerttemberg established a museum in the Brother Church, which not only presents rarities of sacred art but also testimonies of faith from pious women.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the monastery contained three deer antlers, based on that of the Counts of Grüningen-Landau, the greatest donors and benefactors of the house.

See also

  • Former monastery church, today's parish church of St. Anna

literature

  • Alfons Bacher: Heiligkreuztal. History and present. 5th edition. Verlag Current Texts, Heiligkreuztal 1982, ISBN 3-921312-26-4 .
  • Ursmar Engelmann : Heiligkreuztal. Paths to Understanding Monastery and Church. Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron 1979, ISBN 3-87071-033-0 .
  • Otto Beck, Carla Fandrey: Heiligkreuztal. A companion through the cathedral and monastery complex. Beuroner Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Beuron 2004, ISBN 3-89870-166-2 .
  • Anton Hauber : Document book of the Heiligkreuztal monastery. 2 volumes. (= Württemberg historical sources; 9 and 14). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1910-1913 (Vol. 2: archive.org ).
  • Johann Daniel Georg v. Memminger: Heiligkreuzthal municipality. In: Description of the Oberamt Riedlingen . Cotta, Stuttgart and Tübingen 1827 ( full text at Wikisource ).
  • Erwin Reiter: Heiligkreuztal. A companion through the cathedral and monastery complex. Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron 2004, ISBN 3-89870-166-2 .
  • Karl Werner Steim: Heiligkreuztal. From the monastery to the village. Altheim community, Altheim 1992.
  • Karl Werner Steim: From Enlightenment to Repeal. The end of the Heiligkreuztal monastery . (= BC - local history sheets for the Biberach district; 28th year, special issue 1). Biberach 2005 ( digitized version )
  • Stefan Kummer : Preliminary report on the repair of the Heiligkreuztal monastery. New insights into building history - implications for restoration. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. 7th year 1978, issue 1, pp. 21-33 ( PDF ).

Web links

Commons : Heiligkreuztal Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Julia Ricker: Flaking Saints . The damaged wall paintings from Kreuztal Abbey are examined. In: German Foundation for Monument Protection (Hrsg.): Monuments . Magazine for monument culture in Germany. No. 3 . Monuments publications, 2017, ISSN  0941-7125 , p. 32, 33 .
  2. ^ Manderscheid architecture office - buildings. Accessed July 30, 2020 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 9 ″  N , 9 ° 24 ′ 12 ″  E