Monastery makers

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Machern Monastery, view from the courtyard

The monastery makers is a former monastery of Cistercian nuns over the village Zeltingen-Rachtig on the left bank of the Moselle . The property is located in the area of Bernkastel-Kues ( Wehlen district ) about five kilometers northwest of the city.

Founded in the 13th century, it existed until it was secularized by the French government in 1802. Subsequently used for agricultural purposes, its baroque buildings gradually fell into disrepair before being subjected to renovation and restoration work from 1970 onwards. Today the monastery complex is a well-known excursion destination on the Middle Moselle , with a monastery brewery and brewery , wine cellar and a museum .

history

Beginnings and heyday

In 1084, Benedictine nuns of the Trier Irminenkloster founded a branch at the site of the current building, which only existed until around the beginning of the 12th century, because the Archbishop of Trier Bruno von Bretten probably had the convent suppressed in 1114 in favor of his own income. The monastery complex was therefore probably empty at the end of the 12th century. Around 1230, it was re-established as a noble Cistercian monastery, which was subordinate to the nearby Himmerod Abbey . Shortly after this foundation, the monastery was completely rebuilt around 1240, and the church of St. Maria was consecrated on April 12, 1262. The Archbishop of Trier , Arnold II. Von Isenburg , granted the monastery the right to patronize the church in Löf , and one of his successors, Werner von Falkenstein , granted the nuns the right to serve wine as well as jurisdiction during the fairs in Machern in 1395 . Due to its location on the Middle Moselle and its properties in Wehlen, Zeltingen and Rachtig, Machern developed into a center of viticulture . Donations from local citizens and families from the lower nobility in the form of land ownership promoted this development and made the monastery a prosperous abbey . In 1569 there were eight nuns, six of whom were killed by the plague by 1574 . Archbishop Jacob III. therefore commissioned the Himmeroder abbot Gregor with the abolition of the monastery, but the resistance of the electorate nobility against these plans caused him to withdraw his order. Makers suffered further setbacks during the Thirty Years War , the effects of which did not spare the monastery and its buildings.

From June 1574 Maria von Metternich presided over the monastery as abbess. Until her death in 1603, the abbey gradually regained its strength under her. Her successor Odilia von Ahr continued the development work. Under the Abbess Maria Ursula von Metternich, who headed the Machern Monastery from 1680 to 1727, a fundamental rebuilding and renovation of the complex in the Baroque style began in 1688. The foundation stone was laid on March 19 of that year, and work was completed in 1700. Parts of the buildings that still exist today owe their appearance to this construction work as well as redesigns under the subsequent Abbess Maria Theresia Antoinette von Kolb.

Decline and dissolution

Economic losses and the loss of monastic traditions during the 18th century led to the gradual decline of the convent . In 1793 Machern counted only six nuns under the abbess Anna Philippine von Falkenstein. Machern's visitor and abbot of the Himmerod monastery, Anselm von Pidoll, wrote: “The women of the monastery have given up their professional zeal, but have adopted the spirit of secularization ... In general, I find the monastic order in the Machern monastery to be completely disintegrated, no choir service, no monastic silence, no clausur and no order is kept any more. ”Due to the situation in Machern there had been negotiations between Kurtrier and Kurköln since 1789 with the endeavor to convert the monastery into a noble women's monastery, but that never happened. The plan to turn the monastery into a university was not carried out either.

After French revolutionary troops occupied the area around Machern, the French government dissolved the monastery on July 22, 1802, and the property was secularized . The last four nuns, including the abbess Charlotte de l'Atre de Feignies, left the convent that same year. The buildings were then auctioned on June 24, 1803 for 306,000  francs for agricultural purposes to the councilor and mayor of Zeltingen-Rachtig, Carl Eberhard Ellinckhuysen . The new owner had it heavily redesigned for the changed use. For example, the nave of the monastery church was profaned , the church windows walled up and the building then used as a barn . During the renovations, the ceilings and walls of the buildings were badly damaged. The new owner used the church choir as a private chapel . In order to put an end to the constant billeting of French soldiers in his buildings, Ellinckhuysen also had the east wing of the complex on the Moselle side torn down around 1806. With its 35 rooms, two cellars and two storerooms, the abandoned wing of the building was well suited for use as military accommodation. Until its demolition, the core of the building complex was a closed four-wing complex .

Reconstruction and current use

Northernmost wing of the building, which today serves as a restaurant; on the left the Cornelius Chapel

After Ellinckhuysen's death, the property was inherited by the family of his son-in-law Johann Baptist Grach , who had married Ellinckhuysen's daughter Katharina Josefina. From their descendants, the property came to the winery owner Franz Schneider from Zell-Merl in 1969 . From 1970 he invested large sums in the church and monastery buildings and had the run-down buildings repaired in the course of 20 years of renovation and restoration work. In the process, however, the historical structure was also changed by new buildings and installations. For example, the high nave was given a false ceiling and was thus divided into two floors. During this work, the nuns' gallery that had been preserved until then was also removed.

In 2000, the acquired Trier Civic Association 1864 GmbH and Günther Reh Foundation the property, leaving the surviving buildings to 2004 fundamentally restructure . They then opened the former monastery to the public. Today, the buildings are home to several fine dining options, a monastic brewery with attached brewery, a wine cellar and a distillery . In addition, a building serves as a museum, in which on the one hand historical dolls and tin toys are on display, mainly from the period from 1850 to 1925, and on the other hand around 200  icons from Russia , Romania and Ethiopia are shown. There are also changing special exhibitions.

Many of the rooms in the monastery buildings can be rented for parties and events. The Bernkastel-Kues registry office also has a branch office there. In addition, the Cornelius Chapel can be used for weddings.

description

The approximately 2.2  hectare monastery area is enclosed in the north and south-east as well as in the north-west by an enclosure wall. Parts of the current buildings are from a renovation and new construction from the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. To the east of the building is a restored monastery garden in the style of a landscape garden with some baroque style elements such as a flower rondel.

The center of today's building ensemble is the former 37-meter-long monastery church from the end of the 17th century. The plastered quarry stone building has walls and corner blocks made of red Eifel sandstone . It is noteworthy that his single- nave nave, measuring 30 × 8.5 meters, has no side aisles. The baroque ballroom with stuccoed mirror vaults is now located on its high upper floor (peak height 12.5 meters) . On the south-western front side there is a stone tablet with the coat of arms of the abbess and builder Maria Ursula von Metternich, which is surrounded by the coats of arms of the other eight nuns in the monastery at the time. This plaque used to be attached to the parapet of the nuns' gallery. The facade of the nave facing the courtyard is divided into seven axes by large, high windows. Maria Ursula von Metternich's coat of arms can be found in its round and triangular gables , as well as on the window arches inside. The north side of the church used to have windows of the same design, but these are now walled up.

The groin-vaulted church choir with a yoke and 5/8 end is now used as a chapel , the main patron of which is St. Cornelius . Its high altar is dedicated to Saints Erasmus , Valentin, Cornelius and Eberhard and almost completely fills the end of the choir in height and width. His retable dates to the first half of the 18th century and is framed in the middle by two pairs of Corinthian columns. Between the columns there are figures made of lime wood , representing Saints Charles Borromeo and Joseph. Other stone figures in the chapel represent Cornelius, Valentin and Eberhard. Under the choir there is a cellar room with a barrel vault .

Above the arched chapel portal in the south-eastern wall there is a niche on the outside in which there is a replica of a statue of the Madonna from the 14th century. The original is in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier . On the roof of the choir there is a small, open roof turret with a bell and a curved hood . A massive L-shaped building adjoins the monastery church on the north side. Today it serves as a restaurant.

The south-west and south-east side of the monastery courtyard are bounded by a mansion-like building and former farm buildings adjoining it to the east, which also accommodate the arched gate to the monastery area. Although they have two storeys, they are surmounted by the two-storey “mansion” with a high pitched roof. The latter now houses a museum. A small, two-flight flight of stairs leads to its simple portal with a light house border . The type of edging is repeated in the windows of the building, which divide it into eight axes.

  • The former monastery church, left the nave, right the choir (today's Cornelius Chapel)

  • The altar in the Cornelius Chapel

  • Former farm buildings

  • Flower rondel in the monastery garden

literature

  • Christiane Elster: Wine Cabinet / Hofgut Kloster Machern . In: Hiltrud Kier, Marianne Gechter (Hrsg.): Women monasteries in the Rhineland and Westphalia . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2004, ISBN 3-7954-1676-0 , p. 105.
  • Aloys Henn: The former aristocratic Cistercian monastery Klosterhofgut Machern . Self-published, Kastellaun 1978.
  • Wolfgang Jacobs: Notes on the history of the Cistercian monastery of Machern with a short art history tour . Self-published, Zeltingen-Rachtig 1980.
  • Ferdinand Pauly : The Cistercian convent Machern on the Moselle . In: Paulinus . No. 30, 1973, p. 15.
  • Ambrosius Schneider : On the abolition of the Machern Cistercian convent on the Moselle . In: Regional history quarterly papers . No. 8, 1962, pp. 19-21.
  • Hans Vogts (edit.): The art monuments of the district of Bernkastel (= The art monuments of the Rhine Province . Volume 15, Section 1). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1935, pp. 368-370.
  • Karl Wilkes : The founding history of the monastery Machern on the Moselle . In: Trier regional newspaper of February 3, 1927.

Web links

Commons : Kloster Machern  - Collection of images

References and comments

  1. ^ H. Vogts: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kreis Bernkastel , p. 369.
  2. ^ A b F. Pauly: The Cistercian monastery Machern on the Moselle , p. 15.
  3. ↑ W. Jacobs: Notes on the history of the Cistercian monastery Machern with a small art history tour , p. 3.
  4. ↑ W. Jacobs: Notes on the history of the Cistercian monastery Machern with a short art history tour , p. 5.
  5. ↑ Bernd Brauksiepe: Former Cistercian convent Machern (Wehlen) on klosterlexikon-rlp.de , accessed on June 27, 2012.
  6. ^ Georg Bärsch: The Moselle stream from Metz to Coblenz. A geographical-historical-statistical-topographical handbook for travelers and locals . Troschel, Trier 1841, p. 326 ( online ).
  7. ↑ monastery history klostermachern.de , access on 27 June 2012 found.
  8. ^ W. Jacobs: Notes on the history of the Cistercian monastery Machern with a short art history tour , p. 20.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Information on the information board on the property
  10. ↑ a b Jacob Marx: History of the Archbishopric of Trier di the city of Trier and the Trierisches Land, as an electorate and as an archdiocese, from the earliest times up to 1816 . Section 3, Volume 5. Linß, Trier 1864, p. 184 ( online ).
  11. ^ A b W. Jacobs: Notes on the history of the Cistercian monastery Machern with a short art history tour , p. 18, note 98.
  12. ↑ Information about the museum at klostermachern.de , accessed on June 27, 2012.
  13. ↑ Information about the monastery on the website of the city of Bernkastel-Kues ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 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. , Accessed March 19, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bernkastel.de
  14. ↑ a b Information according to the cadastral map available online for makers
  15. ↑ a b c W. Jacobs: Notes on the history of the Cistercian monastery Machern with a small art history tour , p. 25.
  16. ↑ a b c C. Elster: Weincabinett / Hofgut Kloster Machern , p. 105.

Coordinates: 49 ° 57 ′ 17.5 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 5.7 ″  E