Niederschönenfeld Monastery
The Niederschönenfeld Abbey is a former monastery of the Cistercians in Niederschönenfeld in the Bavarian diocese of Augsburg .
history
The monastery is a foundation of Count Berchthold III. von Lechsgemünd / Graisbach (1193–1253). According to legend, the monastery was built to atone for the kidnapping of Adelheid, the king's daughter of Cyprus. Allegedly, Maria shows him the founding place of the Niederschönenfeld monastery in a dream. The Beguines from Burgheim accepted the rules of the Cistercian order and settled the new foundation. In memory of the founder of the monastery, there is still a memorial column in the cemetery today.
The foundation was confirmed by Bishop Siboto of Augsburg on January 9, 1241. In 1254, Pope Innocent IV took the new foundation under the protection of the Holy See. 1342 came Niederschönenfeld with the county Graisbach to Bavaria. After 150 years of existence, around 100 conventual women lived here.
Ludwig the Bavarian , who particularly promoted the monastery, granted the monastery lower jurisdiction in 1322 .
Towards the end of the 14th century, the monastery was the fourth richest monastery in Bavaria. From the 14th century onwards, the abbey's wealth decimated due to looting and wars. When the sovereign Ottheinrich converted from Palatinate-Neuburg to Protestantism in 1542, many rights and property were withdrawn from the monastery. However, these were in 1614 when recatholicization by Wolfgang Wilhelm but returned.
In the Schmalkaldic War of 1546 the monastery was sacked by the troops of Elector Friedrich von Sachsen and Landesgrave Philipp von Hessen ; the convent fled to Rain. The monastery again experienced a sharp decline in its wealth.
After Tilly's defeat by the Swedish king, Gustav II Adolf , at the Battle of Rain am Lech (April 1632), the monastery was destroyed; the convent fled to Frauenchiemsee. After the battle of Nördlingen in 1634 the convent returned. The monastery was poorly rebuilt. In 1645 the Swedes were back; the convention dissolved. In 1646 the monastery was destroyed again by the French and Swedes. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648) , the monastery was to be built in Rain in 1651. The abbess, however, with the support of the electorate, campaigned for the monastery to be rebuilt at its old location, which she succeeded in doing. With the occupation of Bavaria by the Austrians, the Treaty of Niederschönenfeld between Seckendorf, the general of the "Bavarian" emperor, and the Austrian general Khevenhiller came about on June 27, 1743. The contract of Niederschönenfeld stipulated that Bavaria would be evacuated from Seckendorf. Bavaria was under Austrian rule for 2 years.
On March 18, 1803, the monastery was dissolved as a result of the secularization by Maximilian von Montgelas . From 1803 to 1825 the state rent office was located in the monastery buildings. The monastery church was supposed to be demolished in 1814, but it was assigned to the Feldheim parish in 1828 and became an independent curate in 1834. In 1842 King Ludwig I of Bavaria planned to re-establish a Cistercian monastery in Niederschönenfeld in the course of a "counter-secularization", but this failed due to a lack of funds. In 1849 the facility was converted into a penal institution. Today the Niederschönenfeld correctional facility is responsible for young adults up to the age of 26.
The former monastery church of the Assumption of Mary is now the parish church of the village, the pilgrimage church Heilig-Kreuz belongs to the prison complex and is only open to the public on the two cross festivals.
Building history
The original building
The original building, by Count Berchthold III. donated, was a Romanesque pillar basilica without a transept with three apses ending, a typical building type in Bavaria at the time.
Reconstruction by Abbess Martha
Since 1446, instead of the apses, a Gothic choir was added by a yoke, with a flat end in the side aisles and a polygon made up of five sides of an octagon in the central nave.
Reconstruction after the destruction
After the destruction of the church in 1646 by the Swedes, reconstruction planning began in 1651. The monastery was supposed to be moved to Rain, but the abbess successfully resisted this with the help of the elector. Constantin Pader, a Munich expert, needed 12,000 florins to rebuild the monastery and the buildings. With the help of alms from all over Bavaria, the required amount could be raised. In 1658 Pader was commissioned to rebuild the monastery. The Elector of Bavaria appointed Pader as chief builder of Niederschönenfeld.
With a monetary donation from the Elector to the Abbess Euphemia Vatig von Kronburg, the stucco work could be made.
In 1662 the auxiliary bishop of Augsburg Caspar Zeiler inaugurated the church with five altars. The church was 49 meters long, 17.7 meters wide and 14 meters high.
For the expansion of the monastery, Niederschönenfeld received the support of the clergy.
From the reconstruction until today
Serious structural damage occurred as early as 1667. The reason, according to the Munich building commission: "Pader did not hammer any brushes (wooden stakes) into the swampy ground. The damage could be repaired for 1000 florins.
In 1674, despite severe fire and storm damage, the monastery's farm buildings were also completed.
In 1680 the church received a new altar decoration and a new colored robe.
In the early 18th century, the young Dominikus Zimmermann and his father made two more altars for the pilgrimage church.
In 1867 the church was painted uniformly white during a restoration.
From 1958 to 1963 the church underwent an interior restoration at the instigation of the pastor P. Andreas Pfeiffer. The restoration revealed the colors from 1680. In addition, the organ gallery (top gallery) has been reset to its previous status.
From 1966 to 1970 a company from Marxheim carried out an exterior renovation.
In 1986 the dilapidated structure was completely renovated.
A lot of work was also done on the foundation to protect the church from the swampy subsoil in Niederschönenfeld.
Finally, the shell was restored while retaining the existing color scheme and the exterior was painted in white and green tones.
In May 1992 the work, which had been arranged by Pastor Pfeiffer, was completed and cost a total of DM 4.4 million.
Former properties of the Niederschönenfeld Monastery
- Goods and farms in Kunding, Pessenburgheim (then called Oberburgheim), Mittelstetten, Stepperg and Weidorf
- Monastery area around Niederschönenfeld
- Ownership of the parish Bayerdilling
- Patronage rights over Illdorf, Marxheim, Lechsend, Altisheim, Rain, the Michaelskapelle near Holzheim, in Burgheim, Pobenhausen and Tagmersheim
- Feldheim (previously belonged to Monheim Monastery)
Web links
- Niederschönenfeld Monastery , basic data in the database of monasteries in Bavaria in the House of Bavarian History
- Doris Pfister: Lechsgemünd-Graisbach, Count of . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria
- History of the Niederschönenfeld Monastery on the website of the Rain Parish Community
literature
- Monumenta Boica , Volume 16. Munich 1795, pages 259-532 ( digital ).
- Geographisches Statistisch-Topographisches Lexikon von Baiern III , Ulm 1797 in Verlag der Stettinische Buchhandlung, pp. 299-300
- Joseph Baader , History of the Frauenkloster Niederschönenfeld in Antonius Steichele (Ed.): Archive for the history of the Diocese of Augsburg , Volume I. Augsburg 1856. (Digital copies: from page 173 ).
- Adalbert Riehl, Werner Schmidt, Franz Müller a. a .: Niederschönenfeld and Feldheim - 750 years of eventful history . Rain 1990.
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 43 ′ 11.3 " N , 10 ° 55 ′ 50.5" E