Melchtal Monastery

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Melchtal Benedictine Monastery

The Melchtal Monastery (actually: Benedictine Monastery of St. Niklaus von Flüe ) is a former Benedictine monastery in the village of Melchtal in the municipality of Kerns in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland . The monastery existed from 1866 to 2019 and belonged to the Swiss Benedictine Federation.

history

The origins of the monastery go back to a cooperative of religiously minded maids, which was founded in 1860 by the Lucerne diocesan priest Balthasar Estermann on the Bramberg in Lucerne . In 1866 Estermann bought a house in Melchtal in order to found a monastery of eternal adoration together with three women . Estermann died in 1868. After that, Father Berchtold Fluri from Engelberg Monastery took over the care of the women and gave them the Rule of Benedict . From 1868 to 1998 the monastery ran a boarding school for girls, and in 1869 the sisters consecrated their Holy Spirit Church.

Of the various outposts of the monastery, only the Benedictine Scharnitz in Tyrol remains today . In 1889 the Melchtaler Sisters founded a branch monastery in Rapid City ( USA ), which became independent around 1900.

In March 2019, the last eleven Melchtal Benedictine nuns moved out of the monastery and into the converted St. Andreas convent in Sarnen . They live there together with sisters from the also abandoned Marienburg monastery in Wikon and the Benedictine nuns who have previously lived in Sarnen in the new Benedictine center Ora et Labora .

building

The current monastery complex was built in the neo-Romanesque style between 1892 and 1896 (instead of the first buildings from 1876) according to plans by the Schwyz architect Clemens Steiner . The choir of the church was redesigned from 1989 to 1990 by the artist Alois Spichtig from Sachseln . The monastery buildings are among the protected cultural assets of Kerns . They were bought together with the Benedictine convent Marienburg in Wikon at the end of 2019 from the Lucerne building contractor Bruno Amberg and his company Transterra Immobilien AG. The 9800 square meter monastery complex is to be given a new use, whereby the monument protection sets tight limits to the plans.

Melchtal Institute

From the beginning, the sisters placed an emphasis on the education of girls. So they taught at the village school in Melchtal. From 1897 to 1926 they ran their own teacher training seminar and until 1970 a German course for foreign-speaking girls. In 1901 the institute's own building was built, and further buildings followed in 1957. In 1929 the Benedictine women founded the Institute for Girls Melchtal with boarding school, where they taught until 1998. From 1998 to 2002 the new boarding school Melchtal AG tried to continue operating the school for girls and boys. After that, the institute became a guest house with 90 beds for groups, families and individual guests. This was closed on May 1, 2014 and in June 2014 the boarding school, school building and sports facilities were sold to the Franciscan Juvenate Foundation . After a renovation, the foundation's school and therapy home moved in in August 2017. This had previously been in the Franciscan Juvenate in neighboring Flüeli-Ranft since 1999 and offers youth welfare services for male adolescents between 12 and 20 years of age.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History , information page on the website of the former St. Martin monastery in Rapid City
  2. ^ Farewell tears and tears of joy for the Melchtal sisters. In: Obwaldner Zeitung, March 9, 2019
  3. Sarnen: The moving closer together becomes more concrete. In: Obwaldner Zeitung, April 20, 2017
  4. Lucerne building contractor buys empty women's convents. In: Luzerner Zeitung , January 8, 2020
  5. Monument protection places tight limits on plans for Melchtal Abbey. In: Obwaldner Zeitung, January 10, 2020
  6. Former website of the Melchtal Institute , archive version from May 17, 2014
  7. ^ Relocation of the Juvenat Foundation from Flüeli-Ranft to Melchtal (PDF; 1.6 MB) . In: «circular» 2/2013, in-house newspaper of the Juvenate Foundation of the Franciscans

Coordinates: 46 ° 50 ′ 1 "  N , 8 ° 17 ′ 22"  E ; CH1903:  664,909  /  one hundred eighty-seven thousand two hundred ninety-two