Pulgarn Monastery

Former Pulgarn Monastery

Pulgarn is a former monastery of the Holy Spirit Order of the Augustinian Canons in Pulgarn near Steyregg in Upper Austria, which was secularized at the end of the 18th century by Emperor Joseph II .

It is within sight of the Luftenberg Castle on the road between Steyregg and St. Georgen an der Gusen at the confluence of the Reichenbach in the Danube . Further use is currently under discussion.

history

founding

Hans von Kapellen (also Janns von Kapellen ), as the owner of the Steyregg estate, together with his stepmother Margaretha von Falkenberg, fulfilled one of the last wishes of his wealthy father Ulrich II von Kapellen by founding a hospital with a cemetery for the poor and sick , who in 1301 passed away. The founding of the Pulgarn monastery contributed greatly to improving the relationship between the rule of Steyregg and the diocese of Passau .

The hospital ( hospitale pauperum ) was removed from the parish Tafersheim (Taffersheim, Steyregg) on August 10, 1303 by Bishop Wernhard von Passau , which led to disputes with pastor Albert von Tafersheim, which could not be settled until 1305. In the settlement brought about by the Passau bishop, pastoral care for the sick at the Pulgarn hospital was transferred to the dean of Lorch . The Pulgarn Hospital was finally handed over with land by Margaretha von Falkenberg on July 28, 1313 to the Brothers of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Vienna . The chaplains also secured the continued existence of their monastery by generously transferring parts of their lands. With further donations, the hospital was subsequently expanded to include a monastery for men. So gave z. B. the Kapeller between 1349 and 1379 the Pulgarn monastery important possessions in St. Georgen an der Gusen but also possessions in Lower Austria , such. B. the chapel in rock .

Between 1328 and 1332 there was an additional extension to include a women's monastery on a hill near the hospital and the men's monastery. Agnes von Falkenberg, a niece of Jann von Kapellen, was confirmed as the first master of the women's monastery in Pulgarn in 1341.

In 1342 the Pulgarn brothers and sisters were given the right to choose a nurse and a master from among their number. In 1374 the two Eberharde von Kapellen donated the parish church of Steyregg to the Pulgarn monastery in exchange for the church loan from Hedreich acquired in Lower Austria in 1366 , which from this point on looked after the parish population both in Steyregg and in St. Georgen an der Gusen.

Extermination by the Hussites and the Bohemian multitudes

The appearance of the Pulgarn Monastery was - according to the principles of the former Holy Spirit Order - modest from the start. Nevertheless, the monastery complex went up in flames by the Hussites in 1424 and was dilapidated early on. Georg IV of Liechtenstein , as the successor to the chaplains on the Steyregg rule, helped Pulgarn Monastery get back on its feet by transferring the Pabneukirchen church loan . This donation was later ordered in all formality by a bull from Pope Eugene IV . Bohemian warbands raged again in Pulgarn under Prince Victorin in 1468. After King Corvinus' Hungarians burned down the St. Florian Monastery south of the Danube in 1485 , the canons from St. Florian fled for the first time to the orphaned and run-down Pulgarn Monastery, which was also part of one of Bohemian troops during these years controlled area.

After the political disasters of the 15th century, the monastery church could not be consecrated again until July 4, 1514 by Passau Auxiliary Bishop Bernhard Meurl von Leombach .

Fall through the Reformation

Another decline of the monastery took place through the Reformation when the new Protestant owner of the Steyregg lordship, Georg Hartmann I of Liechtenstein , put the married Benedikt Khain in front of the monastery as prior and also made the brothers and sisters of Pulgarns Protestant. In 1567 the Emperor Maximilian II intervened personally, dissolved the monastery and declared Pulgarn a chamber property . During this time, the Steyregg rulership degenerated into a heavily indebted lien, and nurses who remained Protestant also attacked the Pulgarn monastery.

Copper engraving from the Topographia Austriae superioris modernae ( Georg Matthäus Vischer , 1674)

In 1609/12, as a measure of the Counter-Reformation, the rule of Pulgarn was handed over to the Jesuits , who held it until the monastery was abolished. From this point on, Peter Zehender and two priests began to slowly make the areas around Pulgarn Monastery Catholic again . In the course of the Upper Austrian Peasant Wars, however, as early as 1626 angry peasant groups under Christoph Zeller plundered the monastery.

Repealed under Emperor Joseph II.

When the Jesuit order was expelled from the Habsburg hereditary lands by Archduchess Maria Theresa in 1773 , the Pulgarn Bailiwick was taken over by an imperial administrative office. Finally, Emperor Joseph II also made Pulgarn subject to the religious fund he founded . The farm buildings and the church tower of the Pulgarn Monastery were given their present, representative form in 1778.

Pulgarn was first acquired by Franz Steinhauser in 1808 and was finally acquired by auction in 1836 by St. Florian Monastery, which still owns the former Pulgarn Monastery to this day. The Bailiwick Pulgarn went to the Monastery of St. Florian but with the resolution of the manors lost 1848th As was the case at the end of the 15th century, the Augustinian Canons of St. Florian Monastery last took refuge in the former Pulgarn Monastery in the 1940s after the St. Florian Monastery was confiscated by the National Socialists.

building

The T-shaped Gothic building with the monastery church is surrounded by a large economic complex.

Structural features

Notable elements of the monastery church are a Gothic tabernacle on the left side of the altar and the tombstones of the former owners of the Luftenberg lordship, Bernhard von Schallenberg († 1477) and the knight Eustach Frodnacher († 1487) on the outer north wall of the church. An inscription preserved also reported on the foundation of a panel for a lost altarpiece by Hedwig von Starhemberg, nee Rosenberg , in 1521. A triptych from the former monastery church was in 1500 by those of Scherffenberg on air mountain as well as those of Schallenberg on Spielberg donated and is now an important work of the Danube School in the Castle Museum in Linz .

Since October 30, 2015, a replica of a late Gothic organ has been located behind the “Orgelerker” (dated 1512); This was initiated by the organologist Rupert Gottfried Frieberger and co-designed by the organ scientists Rudi van Straten and Wim Diepenhorst ( Netherlands ), or realized by the Dutch workshop Gebrüder Reil ( Heerde , Gelderland ) after a study project for the restoration of the Gothic organ of the Nicolaikirche in Utrecht had brought important insights. The painting of the housing and the design of the wing doors was done by Gerhard Wünsche. The organ has 5 registers (praetant, octave, backseat V - VIII, shelf, pedal bordons), scope manual F - a ″, pedal F - f.

literature

Martha Gammer : The Pulgarn Monastery in the age of religious struggles. In: 700 years of the Church of St. George in St. Georgen / Gusen. Parish St. Georgen / Gusen (Ed.), St. Georgen an der Gusen 1988, pp. 12-14.
Peter Grassnigg: Pulgarn. In: 700 years of the market - 500 years of the city of Steyregg. Stadtgemeinde Steyregg (Ed.), Steyregg 1982, pp. 122–127.
Peter Grassnigg: The Pulgarner Altar in the Linz Castle Museum. In: 700 years of the market - 500 years of the city of Steyregg. Stadtgemeinde Steyregg (Ed.), Steyregg 1982, pp. 128–129.
Jodocus Stülz : History of the monastery of the Holy Spirit Order in Pulgarn. In: V. Annual report of the Francisco-Carolinum Museum in Linz. In addition to the second delivery of the articles on regional studies of Austria above the Enns and Salzburg. Linz 1841, pp. 60–110 ( online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).