Paradies Abbey (Switzerland)

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Aerial view of the Paradise Monastery from 1922

The Paradies Abbey is located in Schlatt in the Swiss canton of Thurgau . Originally as a convent of Poor Clares founded, the buildings now house except the church, the Iron Library , the training center and a magazine of Corporate Archives of Georg Fischer AG .

history

St. Michael Paradies Monastery Church (view from the east)

The order of the Poor Clares was founded by Clare of Assisi and belongs to the Franciscan orders . On December 6th, 1253, Count Hartmann IV. Von Kyburg donated all of his property in the village of Schwarzach to the abbess and the Paradies monastery near Constance . This donation was problematic because certain donated goods were in the hands of his vassals as fiefs . The count appealed to the feudal men to cede their rights to the monastery for God's sake or to sell them. The relocation of the Paradies monastery from Constance to Schwarzach was subsequently postponed until the donation was cleared. In the year 1257 the donation finally became legally binding with a deed drawn up by Hartmann. This document can be seen as the final founding document of the new Paradies monastery in Schwarzach. The name of the monastery probably migrated with the migrating nuns from Constance. Both the construction and the relocation were in no way chronically recorded.

From 1324 the monastery belonged to the Schaffhausen umbrella bailiwick . Later the town of Diessenhofen took over the legal claims of the Truchsessen von Diessenhofen to the monastery bailiwick. In the turmoil of the Reformation , the monastery had to be stopped or. was carried on in the new faith. The abbess Anastasia von Fulach vigorously defended herself against Schaffhausen's efforts to secularize from 1524, but soon had to accept forced sales of bailiwick rights. Around 1574 sovereign rights were transferred to the federal locations. In 1578 the monastery was re-established. No sooner had the crisis of the Reformation era been overcome than in November 1587 a conflagration burned down the entire monastery, with the exception of the gatehouse: The Paradyss cloister began on a bright Saturday, November 11th, at the eighth before midday and had a fountain all day; the wyl a strong west wind that drifted and ignited ye longer ye more. The reconstruction of the destroyed monastery took almost two decades. The abbess Agatha Vonmentlen obtained from Emperor Ferdinand III in 1640 . a privilege that confirmed ownership and rights to the Paradies monastery.

In connection with the coalition wars there were also cuts in this monastery. In May 1799 it was the headquarters of Archduke Karl von Österreich-Teschen . In the Helvetic Republic the monastery was forbidden to accept novices and the monastery property was claimed. The restoration of 1815 did not change much either, the number of conventuals steadily decreased. The financial situation was difficult and the monastery was heavily in debt. An attempt was made to give the monastery a charitable task as a school or hospital, but this failed. In 1836 the canton of Thurgau decided to abolish the monastery. As a result, the monastery property was auctioned and on July 1, 1837, came into the hands of the Diessenhof company Melchior Wegelin as a whole.

In 1918 Georg Fischer AG bought the monastery property and the surrounding farms for the equivalent of 300,000 Swiss francs. The idea behind it was to avoid the general food shortage in the First World War and to ensure that the employees were supplied. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Georg Fischer AG, the entire monastery complex was extensively restored in 1952. Today the iron library, a foundation of Georg Fischer AG and the only specialist library in Switzerland on the subject of iron processing as well as the training center of Georg Fischer AG are located there. The former monastery church is now the parish church of the Catholic community Schlatt-Paradies in the pastoral care association Diessenhofen-Basadingen-Paradies. The other buildings (including the leased farm, the residential buildings and the Paradies restaurant) belong to Georg Fischer AG in Schaffhausen.

Example page, Breviarium OFM (pars aestivalisv)

Monastery library

Little is known about the monastery library. Fearing that the monastery would be looted during the troubled Reformation period, the nuns brought their treasures to Schaffhausen in 1524. After converting to the new faith, Schaffhausen placed the monastery under compulsory administration. Even after losing patronage over the monastery, Schaffhausen did not want to return the books. It claimed these were no longer there. Part of the collection had been incorporated into the pastor's library, which later became the ministerial library, while another part was allegedly sold to Zurich or Basel. In this way, the Paradise stock can no longer be clearly identified.

There are four manuscripts in the Schaffhausen City Library , namely the following two:

  • Ministerialbibliothek, Min. 98: Breviarium OFM (pars hiemalis) , formerly referred to in literature as Horae canonicae (description and digitized version)
  • Ministerialbibliothek, Min. 99: Breviarium OFM (pars aestivalis) , formerly referred to in literature as Horae canonicae (description and digitized version)

Agricultural estate

Farm

In the past, most of the monasteries were self-sufficient and therefore dependent on one or more farms. Before the secularization around 1803, the farm of the Paradies monastery comprised around 500 hectares of forest, fields and meadows and also various buildings such as a stable, a mill and a saw. Today the farm still comprises 65 hectares of meadows and fields, but no longer forests. Half of it is used for agriculture. The meadows feed 50–60 Simmental Fleckvieh and give them space to run. Horses, pigs and chickens are also kept. The manager of this arable land lived with his family in the south-west wing of the monastery. After his departure, the apartment remained empty for a long time. In 2010 it was completely renovated, now one part serves as an office, the other part as an apartment.

church

Interior of the monastery church

The monastery and parish church of St. Michael was built in 1587 according to Franciscan building regulations for mendicant orders , which demand the simplest possible construction. Therefore it was not allowed to have a tower, but only a roof turret . You enter the elongated nave through a pointed arched door. In the St. Church dedicated to Archangel Michael , lay people could also take part in the services. The cloister regulations therefore required that a gallery be built for the nuns , which they could enter directly from the cloister . In 1726 a large pillarless gallery was built in, which takes up the entire western half of the church.

literature

  • Hans Wilhelm Harder: The Clarissin monastery paradise, until the end of the patronage of the city of Schaffhausen. Schaffhausen 1870 ( e-copy ).
  • HW Salathé (photos), Werner Raths: The Thurgau. A moment in time and space . Verlag Niggli, Sulgen TG 1993, ISBN 3-7212-0278-3 (illustrated book).
  • Karl Schib , Hans Rippmann (illustrator): History of the paradise monastery . Georg Fischer, Schaffhausen 1951.
  • Alfons Raimann: The art monuments of the Canton of Thurgau, Volume V: The Diessenhofen district. ( Art monuments of Switzerland. Volume 85). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1992, ISBN 3-909158-73-0 , pp. 318-404.
  • Betty Sonnberger, Peter Niederhäuser, Raphael Sennhauser: The monastery and parish church of St. Michael, paradise. ( Swiss Art Guide , No. 746, Series 75). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2001, ISBN 978-3-85782-746-4 .
  • Monument Preservation Thurgau (Ed.): A look into paradise. History of the construction and restoration of the St. Michael monastery church in Paradies . Huber, Frauenfeld 2003, ISBN 3-7193-1339-5 .
  • Valentin Zandonella: The Klostergut Paradies . Bolli & Böcherer AG, Schaffhausen 1978 (idea and implementation: + GF + advertising department).
  • Walter Bersorger, Peter Niederhäuser The Paradise Abbey. Editor GSK 2018; Art Guide Series 104 No. 1035. ISBN 978-3-03797-362-2 .

Web links

Commons : Klostergut Paradies  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Schib, Hans Rippmann (illustrator): History of the monastery paradise . Georg Fischer, Schaffhausen 1951, p. 15, 16 .
  2. ↑ Hans Wilhelm Harder: The Clarissinnen-Kloster Paradies, until the end the umbrella bailiwick of the city of Schaffhausen . Brodtmann, 1870 ( google.de [accessed June 21, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Stefanie Spirig-Bülte: Anastasia von Fulach. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . April 15, 2005 .
  4. ^ Karl Schib, Hans Rippmann (illustrator): History of the monastery paradise . Georg Fischer, Schaffhausen 1951, p. 68 .
  5. ↑ Stefanie Spirig-Bülte: Agatha Vonmentlen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 28, 2011 .
  6. ↑ Art Guide Das Kloster Paradies , page 8
  7. ↑ Art Guide Das Kloster Paradies , page 9
  8. ^ Alfons Raimann: The art monuments of the canton of Thurgau, Volume V: The district of Diessenhofen. (Art Monuments of Switzerland, Volume 85). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1992, ISBN 3-909158-73-0 , pp. 318-404. P. 354.
  9. ^ Max Bendel: The Horae Canonicae in the Schaffhauser Ministerialbibliothek , in: Schaffhauser Jahrbuch I, 1926, p. 43ff.
  10. ↑ e-codices: http://dx.doi.org/10.5076/e-codices-sbs-min0098
  11. ↑ e-codices: http://dx.doi.org/10.5076/e-codices-sbs-min0099
  12. ^ Betty Sonnberger, Peter Niederhäuser, Raphael Sennhauser: The monastery and parish church of St. Michael, paradise. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 746, Series 75). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2003, ISBN 3-85782-746-7 . P. 15f.

Coordinates: 47 ° 41 ′ 2.9 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 34.9"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred ninety-two thousand nine hundred and thirty-five  /  282235