Reichenstein Monastery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reichenstein Monastery from a bird's eye view (2017)
Reichenstein, above the Rur valley
Gut Reichenstein, summer 2012

The Reichenstein Monastery , completely Monasterium Immaculati Cordis Mariae Reichsteri , has been a Benedictine monastery in the Monschau district of Kalterherberg in the Eifel since 2017 . In the 12th century there was a Premonstratensian monastery on the site of a hilltop castle from the 11th century. After the dissolution as a result of the French secularization , the Reichenstein estate came into private hands. 2008, that of acquired Rome breakaway Society of St. Pius X. related French Abbey Notre-Dame de Bellaigue the building, to found a Benedictine monastery. The monastery is located on a hill deep in the Rur valley , approx. 30 km south of Aachen , approx. 5 km west of the city center of Monschau, almost directly on the Belgian border in the Aachen city region .

architecture

The former priory , the monastery chapel and the farm wing behind the chapel have been preserved from the time of the Premonstratensians . The other buildings around the farm yard date from the 19th century. The chapel is a quarry stone building with a 3/8 choir closure . It received a new slate roof in 1980 . The priory, a two-storey quarry stone building and the other side houses facing the courtyard were mainly provided with slate roofs in the 1970s.

During the renovation work, the view was that individual parts of the building were older than previously assumed. Traces in the church structure show that it could date from the early Middle Ages, the thirteenth century, that is, up to 400 years older than assumed. The features are functionless round arches and other design features, such as functionless buttresses that are also visible from the outside. In the course of time, construction work has been carried out again and again, so that a more precise dating has not yet been possible.

history

In the second half of the 11th century, the counts and later dukes of Limburg founded a classic hilltop castle on a mountain of the Rur am Ermesbach to secure their possessions. With the "Richwinsteins" it was the areas south of Aachen, Hof and Forst Konzen, which were very important as royal possessions. Because the building did not meet the requirements of a fortification due to its location, the Dukes of Limburg donated their Richwinstinne (Reichenstein) castle to the Premonstratensian order in 1131/36 . The monastery founded there was a double monastery until 1250 . Later the canons left the monastery and went to join their confreres in Steinfeld Monastery . Reichenstein remained a Premonstratensian monastery until 1487. In 1487 the last women choirs left Reichenstein, while canons from Steinfeld settled in the monastery again.

In 1543 Reichenstein was destroyed in the Third War of the Geldrian Succession by troops of the Catholic Karl von Egmond , but was rebuilt in the following period. From 1639 to 1686 Stephan Horrichem was prior of the Reichenstein Monastery, who is revered as the "Apostle of the Venn ". The priory building was rebuilt in its current form in 1687 and the reconstructed monastery church was consecrated in 1693. From 1664 to 1733 the monastery provided the pastor for the first church in Roetgen .

The decline of the monastery began in 1794 with the French occupation of the areas on the left bank of the Rhine. In 1802, the monastery was dissolved by Napoléon Bonaparte in the course of secularization . After being leased for a few years, the monastery property was sold to the cloth manufacturer and later district administrator Bernhard Böcking in 1808. With around 500 Magdeburg acres, today 125 hectares, the land was one of the largest farms in the Monschau region. Until 2008 the owners changed several times.

The beginnings of meteorological measurements in the upper Rur valley go back to an initiative by Gut Reichenstein. The use of Hellmann's rain gauge (see Gustav Hellmann ) was tested as early as 1891 . According to the Essen Meteorological Office , the precipitation measurements began on July 1, 1892. The monastery church was initially used as a sheepfold, later for a cheese factory and finally until 1971 as a hay barn. In 1971 the building complex was the location for the episode Kressin and the Lüttich truck in the ARD crime film series Tatort .

Inner courtyard with main building and monastery church (2009)

In 1973 Ernst Wilhelm Handschumacher and his wife Helma bought the former Reichenstein Monastery and campaigned for the renovation of the monastery church and the monastery buildings. In September 2008, French Benedictines from the Notre-Dame de Bellaigue priory , who are close to the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, took over the Reichenstein estate to build a monastery there. On May 16, 2009, the monastery church was re-blessed by the prior of the founding abbey of Bellaigue. The Office for Monument Preservation in the Rhineland Regional Association stated: "The intended use is an ideal case from a monument preservation point of view".

On October 14, 2017, the Benedictine monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was benedited and established. The bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Aachen was not involved.

Web links

Commons : Reichenstein Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alexander Brüggemann: Germany's only Trappist monastery closes. Catholic.de , January 23, 2018, accessed on January 23, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Matthäus Haynos: Reichenstein becomes a monastery . Website of the Benedictine monastery Reichenstein, accessed on January 29, 2018.
  3. ↑ Peter Stollenwerk: Does the monastery church come from the Middle Ages? In: Eifeler Nachrichten , Nordeifel edition, May 28, 2014, p. 22.
  4. ↑ Octavia Zanger: Monschau, Reichenstein Monastery - Expert opinion on the history, the history of the building and the importance . Landschaftsverband Rheinland - Office for Monument Preservation , March 31, 2009, accessed on January 29, 2018 (PDF; 33 kB).
  5. ↑ Hans Gerd Lauscher: The Reichenstein manor . Editor: District of Aachen. Aachen 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024400-1 , p. 13 ff .
  6. ^ Allo Pach: location Aachen - crime scene 1970/1971 . Aachen Underground Culture, November 30, 2011, accessed on January 29, 2018
  7. ↑ Octavia Zanger: Monschau, Reichenstein Monastery - Expert opinion on the history, the history of the building and the importance . Landschaftsverband Rheinland - Office for Monument Preservation , March 31, 2009, p. 4, accessed on January 29, 2018 (PDF; 33 kB).
  8. ↑ Reichenstein now belongs to the monks . Aachener Zeitung , October 15, 2017, accessed on January 29, 2018.

Coordinates: 50 ° 32 '21.55 "  N , 6 ° 12' 2.56"  E