Schönthal Abbey (Upper Palatinate)

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The monastery Schönthal is a former convent of the Augustinian Hermits in Schönthal in Bavaria in the diocese of Regensburg .

Schönthal, parish church St. Michael, former monastery (2011)

history

The monastery consecrated to St. Mary and St. Michael was Wilhelmine Monastery from 1250 to 1263 , and from 1263 the Augustinian hermit monastery . There were connections to the Stockau Monastery ( Biwanka Monastery , also: Pivonka , Pivoň ) near Taus . The monastery was in the area of rule of Schwarzenburg , since the Bavarian division of 1255 to territory for wittelsbacher Duchy of Lower Bavaria belonged. From the monastery, the area in the north of the central Schwarzach valley was opened up for colonization.

A Father Heinrich is named as the first prior in 1261. The monastery was exempt from the diocese of Regensburg , d. H. only practice the general of the order subordinate to the Holy See . The dukes Otto III were important patrons of the monastery . and Stephan I of Lower Bavaria, the Landgraves of Leuchtenberg , the Counts of Leonsberg and many other noble families from Upper Palatinate. The monastery received patronage over the parish of Rötz from the Wittelbach rulers in 1297 , with Heinrichskirchen , Hiltersried and Biberbach (a separate provost's office was set up here in 1395 for property management). In 1303 the monastery was given lower jurisdiction . In 1333, under Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian , all taxes were exempted. A monastery brewery is documented for the first time in 1341. In 1442 there is also evidence of a hammer mill that was a member of the Upper Palatinate hammer cleaning organization . In the middle of the 14th century there was a beguinage here alongside the monks .

The monastery was burned down by the Hussites in 1427 and again the following year. The rebuilding was initiated by the energetic prior Konrad von Murach (1409 - 1434). At the end of the 15th century, the monastery flourished again. The area was not affected by the turmoil of the Landshut War of Succession , but in 1509 the Rötz area was sold to the Electoral Palatinate . As a result, the monastery was dissolved on November 10, 1556 because of the change of denomination of the sovereign Ottheinrich . In 1559 the last monks left the monastery after the death of the last prior, Father Erhard Prichsner. Under his successor, Elector Friedrich III. the area was Calvinist , and under his successor the Elector Ludwig VI. Lutheran again and briefly Calvinist again under his successor Johann Kasimir . In the course of the Calvinist iconoclasm, all of the church's furnishings were removed, only the stone high altar remained. The possessions of the monastery were subordinated to the sovereign government and administered by an official of the Rötz nursing court. As a result, hardly any investments were made in the monastery buildings, although the decline was further driven by the effects of the Thirty Years' War .

After the victory of Elector Maximilian I over the Winter King , re-Catholicization began in the Upper Palatinate. The Schönthal monastery was also restored. As early as 1628 two parish vicars of the previous order were active again, in 1669 the previous rights and possessions were returned to the monastery. In 1695 the foundation stone for a new baroque monastery complex was laid under Prior P. Prosper Helgemayr. In 1710 the restoration of the monastery church began, for which Wolfgang Dientzenhofer was hired . The model was the Church of St. Michael in Munich. The patronage was also changed to St. Michael following this example . In addition to this, Nikolaus von Tolentino , the most important ordained saint of the Augustinian hermits, was venerated in the monastery .

The monastery was dissolved in 1802 in the course of secularization . In the middle of September 1802 the district judge presented the prior Benignus Wilhelm with the revocation patent. The conventuals were relocated to Munich. The monastery goods were sold, the monastery buildings, the brewery that still exists today and the monastery pharmacy were auctioned. In 1808, new parishes were established in Schönthal and the associated places. Prior P. Wilhelm († 1809) was able to take over the parish of Schönthal; the monastery church became the parish church.

Buildings

The monastery church is a hall building with a hall building with a retracted rectangular choir, saddle roof, flank tower with pointed helmet, tail gable and frame structures from 1710. It burned down to a large extent in 1833, was repaired in 1836 and expanded in 1909. Today it is the Catholic parish church of St. Michael.

  • Schönthal monastery monastery building

  • Schönthal Abbey, front courtyard

  • Schönthal Abbey, rear courtyard

The monastery building is a two-storey four-wing building with hipped roofs, driveway and plastered sections and was built in 1695 according to plans by Wolfgang Dientzenhofer . In the north wing there is the former rectory, a two-storey eaves roof structure. The entire complex including the former monastery cemetery (17th / 18th century) is a listed building.

literature

  • Franz Dionys Reithofer : History of the former Augustinian monastery Schönthal in Baiern; from unprinted and unused sources . Munich 1816 ( e-copy ).
  • Alois Schmid: The monastery of the Augustinian hermits Schönthal. In Tobias Appl; Manfred Knedlik (ed.): Upper Palatinate monastery landscape. The monasteries, monasteries and colleges of the Upper Palatinate. Pp. 182-194. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7917-2759-2 .

Web links

Commons : Schönthal Abbey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Bernklau, Franz Schröpfer, Heinrich Cenefels, Franz Spaderns: Stockau. In: Franz Liebl, Heimatkreis Bischofteinitz (Hrsg.): Our Heimatkreis Bischofteinitz. Brönner & Daentler, Eichstätt 1967, pp. 272-276.
  2. ↑ Karlmann Pöhnl: The monastery Stockau. In: Franz Liebl, Heimatkreis Bischofteinitz (Hrsg.): Our Heimatkreis Bischofteinitz. Brönner & Daentler, Eichstätt 1967, pp. 449-454.
  3. ^ Karl von Leoprechting, Chronicle of the von Elsenberg On the moral history of the Middle Ages. In: Franz Pocci, Rudolf von Reding-Biberegg (Hrsg.): Old and new. 1855, Volume 2, p. 110 on Google books online
  4. ^ Dominik Dorfner: Hussites. From the stake in Constance to the fire sites in the Upper Palatinate. Accompanying volume for the exhibition in the pilgrimage museum Neukirchen b. Holy Blood and the Schwarzachtaler Heimatmuseum Neunburg vorm Wald. Series of publications by the Pilgrimage Museum Neukirchen b. Holy Blood (Volume 6a), p. 37.

Coordinates: 49 ° 21 ′ 10.8 "  N , 12 ° 36 ′ 22.3"  E