Hornbach Monastery

Aerial photo of Hornbach Monastery from 2006

The Hornbach monastery is a former monastery founded by St. Pirminius in the historic town of Gamundias (today Hornbach ) around the year 741 , which soon existed as a Benedictine abbey . The most important immediate neighboring abbeys were Busendorf , St. Avold , Glandern , Weiler-Bettnach , Fraulautern , Mettlach , Tholey and the St. Arnual Abbey . The neighboring intellectual centers were Trier and Metz . At the present time, only structural remains of the convent buildings of the Hornbach monastery complex, which were supplemented by a monastery museum, as well as a modern chapel with the historic grave of the monastery founder.

history

Model of the monastery, as it was around 11th-16th centuries. Century; in the background (top left) St. Stephan collegiate church

Rest of the convent building (right) and the cloister, both are integrated into a hotel; in the foreground the foundations of the crossing tower

Painting from the Hornbach sacramentary: The Hornbach abbot Adalbert (left) presents the sacramentary to St. Pirminius

Hornbach Monastery, the modern chapel above the Pirminius grave

Empty Pirminius grave in Hornbach

The place Gamundias had a Celtic and later a Roman settlement, each with a mountain sanctuary on the site, which was later built over with the monastery; predominantly Roman coin finds prove a use from 496 BC. Chr.

Hornbach Abbey was part of the Metz diocese . After the foundation of Count Eberhard ( Etichonen ), the Murbach Abbey was founded in 727, Pirmin came to Gamundias around 740/741. Count Warnharius from the Widonen family (ancestors of the Salians ) founded a Benedictine monastery there; Sigibald († 741), Bishop of Metz signed the deed of foundation and confirmed the monastery. As a proprietary monastery of Kloster Hornbach Salian had far-reaching privileges. After his death in 753 St. Pirmin was buried in the monastery. With the emergence of his cult of worship, the importance of the place increased, which can also be proven in several renovations and extensions, as well as in numerous documents that mention a tax payment to the monastery. The saint's grave was moved to the east apse; from 827 Pirmin was named as the patron saint of the Hornbach monastery, along with Petrus. Around 850 he was in charge of the Zell monastery near Worms , in the vicinity of which it also owned several own churches and properties. In 1087 Emperor Heinrich IV gave the Hornbach monastery to the Speyer bishop Rüdiger Huzmann . In the 11th century a monumental pillar basilica measuring 72 meters in length was built , which had five towers and a western building in addition to the two apses. Emperor Heinrich V granted the monastery the right to mint , which was exercised until around 1230. The building was renewed in the 12th century. The monastery gave important impulses for the development in Upper Lorraine , which is documented in numerous village and court foundations by the monks. When it came under the influence of the Counts of Zweibrücken , the decline began.

In 1548 only three monks lived here and in 1557 the Hornbach monastery was finally abolished in the course of the Reformation . The monastery assets, the current income and the monastery buildings were used to set up a princely state school, which was responsible for the training of the next generation of pastors and higher officials required in Pfalz-Zweibrücken and was intended to prepare them for studies at a university . In 1631 the school was moved to Zweibrücken . After that, the unused building fell into disrepair. Wars also led to further destruction; so dragged in the Dutch War , French troops the central tower of the basilica.

In the Central Library Solothurn is the so-called Hornbach Sacramentary , a codex of the 10th century, made from the horn Bacher Schreiber monk Eburnant on behalf of his abbot Adalbert of Hornbach (ca. 970-990).

Today's meaning

By the year 2000, most of the remains of the monastery were integrated into a hotel complex and a monastery museum "Historama Kloster Hornbach" was set up in the basement of the building, which tells the history of the monastery.

The last abbot of Hornbach, Count Anton von Salm , saved the relics of St. Pirminius in Speyer in 1558 . From there it was brought to Innsbruck in 1575 by the former president of the Imperial Court of Justice and current governor of Tyrol , Count Schweikhard von Helfenstein . Here they are today in a modern shrine in the Innsbruck Jesuit Church . After the rediscovery of the original Hornbach grave on the former abbey site in 1953, some of the remains returned from there. Today they are kept in Hornbach, Speyer and Pirmasens . The Protestant Church of the Palatinate , which owns the former monastery district, had a chapel built over the historic grave in 1957, and it is now a pilgrimage site again.

A few steps lead down to the empty grave, ending in front of a profiled sandstone frame at the foot of the grave niche. It is a window opening through which the pilgrims could touch the shrine of the saint. The tomb is the oldest known testimony of church architecture in the Palatinate .

literature

Richard Antoni: Life and Deeds of Bishop Pirmin, The Carolingian Vita (Reichenauer texts and images, 9), ed. by Walter Berschin, Stuttgart 2002.
Stefan Flesch: The monastic written culture of the Saar region in the Middle Ages (publications of the Commission for Saarland State History and Folk Research 20), Saarbrücken 1991. online
Pia Heberer: The Hornbach monastery in the Palatinate. Building history and sacral topography. General Directorate for Cultural Heritage - Rhineland-Palatinate , Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-936113-02-0
Franz Xaver Remling : Documented history of the former abbeys and monasteries in what is now Rhine Bavaria in the Google book search. Theil-Verlag, Neustadt ad Haardt, 1836, pp. 53-87