Löwental Monastery
The monastery Löwental was a convent of Dominican nuns . It was founded in 1250 in the eponymous Löwental in the immediate vicinity of the then free imperial city of Buchhorn . Löwental is now a district of Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. With the secularization in 1806 the property went to Württemberg .
history
The Reichsministeriale Johannes von Ravensburg-Löwental donated his Eichstegen-Löwental Castle , located on the Rotach , to the Dominicans of Constance in 1250 and at the same time joined their order. The monastery was incorporated into the Dominican Order on June 2, 1250, the monastery was incorporated into the Dominican Order. Originally it was supposed to be called Himmelwonne , but this was given up in 1253 in favor of Löwental . The founder, Johannes von Ravensburg, came from an initially Guelph, then a Hohenstaufen family. In 1260 the monastery received properties near Ailingen from Count Rudolf and Gottfried von Habsburg . Since the monastery needed craftsmen and farmers in its service, the population of the village of Löwental grew rapidly.
The building was completely destroyed by two fires in 1304, but was soon rebuilt. In 1447 the monastery had to be renovated again. 37 years later, the work, for the financing of which some properties were sold, was completed. Further fires in 1609 and during the Thirty Years' War (see Naval War on Lake Constance 1632–1648 ) made the monastery uninhabitable; a monastery made available by the Bishop of Constance could only accommodate a few nuns. In 1659 nuns moved back into the new building, and in 1687 the baroque church was consecrated. Up until the secularization, the monastery’s fortunes grew steadily, especially through the important pharmacy; In 1695 it owned 64 fiefdoms.
After an inspection by a Württemberg commissioner, the monastery was closed in the summer of 1806. The entire property as well as the property went to the House of Württemberg. The nuns were initially assured that they would continue to live in the monastery. They also received an annual pension. However, when King Friedrich decided in 1812 to build barracks in the former monastery building, they had to leave the monastery. Some of them moved to the Kirchheim monastery and some of them left the order. The furnishings of the monastery were immediately auctioned and the building was rebuilt. It was not until 1814 that the 2nd Battalion of the Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 10 moved into the barracks. After the war against France, two years later, the facility was empty again. The church inventory that had been preserved until then was auctioned off and distributed to the surrounding communities. Since no buyer could be found for the building, now known as “Schloss Löwental”, the mill was sold separately, the buildings partially torn down or converted into farms. Today the Trautenmühle and part of the monastery wall still exist. The “Zum Klosterwirt” inn also bears witness to the past.
economy
An essential aspect of monastery life was agriculture on around 200 hectares of usable area, most of which was used as arable land and pasture. In addition, the monastery owned 500 hectares of forest. A mill was built to process the goods, which was mainly used to grind spelled. In spite of the numerous servants who were housed in the "Knechtenhaus" near St. Georgen, the Upper House of Habsburg and Upper Austria complained about the low income in the 18th century.
Monastery life
Life in the monastery took place according to the rules of the Dominican Order , whose basic principles are poverty and asceticism . Since these rules were only partially applicable to women, the nuns soon received an exemption from the vow of poverty. The exam regulations , which said that they were allowed to live in an area shielded by a wall, were soon relaxed. Some nuns soon had individual property outside the monastery and wealthy women also moved into the monastery. The reintroduction of these rules did not take place in Löwental until 1618, but was soon repealed due to the Thirty Years' War. The daily work of the sisters also included studying in the monastery library, which was lost in the fire in 1634. Today only two manuscripts from Löwental are preserved.
Churches and chapels
The Löwental Monastery gradually came into the possession of several churches and chapels in the area.
The first of these was the St. Johann Baptist Church in Ailingen , which was consecrated to John the Baptist . It was donated by Rudolf and Gottfried von Habsburg. In 1326 the Bishop of Constance granted the incorporation as the monastery was very impoverished. This opened up the possibility of improving the financial situation by selling letters of indulgence . However, the renovation measures in the 14th century and 1625 presented it with further financial problems. In 1958 the church was completely demolished except for the tower and a small chapel.
Together with the Ailinger, their branch church St. Petrus and Paulus in Ettenkirch also went to the monastery. The church tower and the choir, which have been preserved to this day, were built in the Gothic style . The ceiling painting shows the coronation of Mary. In 1715 the community became independent due to disputes with the population; in the following period the church was expanded and redesigned several times.
The pilgrimage church of St. Blasius came into the possession of the monastery around 1375 as a gift from the local nobility of Meistershofen. Pilgrimages began with the erection of baroque altars in the 17th century. The attempt of the monastery to integrate the chapel into the monastery parish in order to share in the profits remained in vain. Despite the damage during the air raid on Friedrichshafen during the Second World War, the chapel has been preserved almost in its original state due to extensive renovation measures.
literature
- Fritz Maier: Friedrichshafen - Heimatbuch . Volume 1. Friedrichshafen 1983, ISBN 3-922137-22-9 , pp. 299-303
- Karl Otto Müller: The Löwental Monastery at the time of its abolition (1806) , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 61st year 1934, pp. 80–127 ( digitized version )
- Max Messerschmid: The sale of the Löwental monastery , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 82nd year 1964, pp. 128-137 ( digitized version )
- Raimund Waibel: 750 years of Löwental Monastery . Municipal Archives, Friedrichshafen 2000, ISBN 3-89549-300-7 .
- Georg Wieland: Löwental Monastery on sale 1812-1826 in: Bodenseekreis and City of Friedrichshafen (ed.): Leben am See. The yearbook of the Lake Constance district . Volume 19. Verlag Senn, Tettnang 2002, ISBN 3-88812-520-0 , pp. 23-38
swell
- ^ Dominican monastery Löwental in the database of monasteries in Baden-Württemberg of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives
- ↑ History of Friedrichshafen ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Information about churches and the monastery
- ↑ Plan of Eigenwirtschaft 1789, Main State Archives Stuttgart
- ^ Report of a nun on regular income, Main State Archives Stuttgart
- ^ Certificate of indulgence from 1329 in the Ailingen parish archive
- ↑ 1200 years of Ailingen, commemorative publication for the anniversary of the community of Ailingen
Coordinates: 47 ° 39 ′ 43 " N , 9 ° 29 ′ 36" E