Seligenstadt Monastery

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View from the convent garden: basilica, to the left of it the convent building
View from the monastery courtyard: the prelature wing

The monastery Seligenstadt was a Benedictine monastery in Seligenstadt that existed from the 9th to the 19th century.

Geographical location

The monastery complex is located on the banks of the Main in the immediate vicinity of the ruins of the Palatinate Seligenstadt , historically on the edge, but within the wall ring of the city of Seligenstadt, and today in its center in the eastern district of Offenbach in Hesse .

history

High Middle Ages

founding

The founder of the monastery, Einhard, in a depiction from the 14th century.

Einhard († 840), biographer of Charlemagne , received the settlement "Obermulinheim", the original name of the place, given in 815 by Charles' son, Ludwig the Pious . Einhard founded the Seligenstadt monastery here around 828 and became its first abbot after the death of his wife Imma in 830 . In Rome he acquired relics of the early Christian martyrs Marcellinus and Peter in an unclear way , which he first housed in the Steinbach monastery and then transferred to Seligenstadt. Einhard set up a convent of clergymen to institutionalize the cult of saints and to look after the pilgrims.

Hardly any reliable sources are available from the period between approx. 850-1000. Probably around 1000 the clerical monastery was converted into a Benedictine monastery. The monastery was imperial until 1002 , when it was transferred as a fiefdom from King Heinrich II to the Würzburg bishop Heinrich I. 1045 received the monastery from Emperor Heinrich III. the right to coin . In 1063 King Heinrich IV handed the monastery over to the Archbishop of Mainz as his own monastery , and it belonged to his domain until it was secularized at the beginning of the 19th century. From 1051 to 1122 the Archbishops of Mainz were also abbots of the monastery.

The monastery complex corresponded to the ideal model of a Benedictine monastery according to the monastery plan of St. Gallen .

On the part of the Pope , the abbot received in 1208 the right to wear an episcopal miter .

Economic basis

The Seligenstadt monastery became an economic and political center and acquired extensive property. The abbey received numerous donations in places on both sides of the Main. The oldest surviving interest register from around 1000 lists income from over 40 locations and the monastery’s free float extended along the Main to Trennfurt , into the Freigericht and the Vorspessart , into the Wetterau and into the Rhine-Main area , on the edge of the Odenwald and up to the Upper Rhine Plain . 1045 awarded King Henry III. the monastery immunity , market , coin and customs rights .

The monastic vineyards were on the southern slope of the Hahnenkamm near Alzenau - Hörstein . Today's Hörsteiner Abtsberg vineyard , where Riesling , Silvaner , Müller-Thurgau and Kerner are grown and bottled in Bocksbeutel , still reminds of this historical tradition. The current owner of the vineyards is the Staatsweingut Staatlicher Hofkeller Würzburg .

The external "economic operation" of the monastery was combined in the district bailiwick of Seligenstadt .

Despite this economically strong position, the monastery did not succeed in establishing itself in the process of territorialization. Rather, it remained part of Kurmainz since the 11th century .

Late Middle Ages

Church situation

Ecclesiastically, the monastery was assigned to the Archdiocese of Mainz and here to the Archdeaconate of St. Peter and Alexander in Aschaffenburg . It belonged to the order province of Mainz-Bamberg. The archbishop controlled the monastery property and property and had to approve the election of the abbot.

The monastery had parish rights in Seligenstadt, Steinheim am Main , Groß-Auheim , Alzenau , Michelbach , Klein-Krotzenburg , Krombach , Stockstadt am Main , Geiselbach and Dieburg .

In 1481, the Archbishop of Mainz, Diether von Isenburg , forced the monastery to reform and join the Bursfeld Congregation , in which it remained until secularization. The result was that non-nobles were now allowed to enter the monastery and its financial circumstances were reorganized. For example, the abbot and the convent property were merged. The improved ability to act and the reputation of the monastery.

Worldly situation

For centuries, disputes between the monastery and the neighboring town of Seligenstadt were formative. Since compulsory labor , taxes, tribute and court rights of the monastery contradicted the civil liberty of the city, economic interests stood against each other, property of property and rights were contested, the monastery and town were in a permanent conflict for centuries. In 1255, Archbishop Gerhard von Mainz ordered the incorporation of the city parish of Seligenstadt into the monastery, thereby exacerbating the conflict. A permanent conflict over the rights of use in the Seligenstädter Wald was only settled by the sovereign, Archbishop Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein , in 1755, when he saw his hunting rights severely impaired.

The obligation of the monastery to contribute to the preservation of the city wall and to the city defense aggravated its economic problems in the late Middle Ages. Further impairments were attacks by Frankfurt city soldiers, armed conflicts with the Lords of Rödelheim and the castle team of Gelnhausen and the Mainz collegiate feud . They forced the abbey to sell monastery property and weakened it considerably towards the end of the Middle Ages.

Early modern age

During the Reformation , the monastery was attacked and plundered in 1525 in the Peasants' War by the townspeople, who allied themselves with the peasants. During the Thirty Years' War , the abbey was plundered and damaged several times, and the monks were driven out.

Only from the end of the 17th century did the monastery flourish again. The complex was renewed in baroque forms and decorated splendidly: in 1685 the convent building with chapter house and monks cells followed, in 1686 the (today so called) "old abbey" followed with the abbot's apartment and administrative rooms , in 1699 the prelature with a new abbot's apartment.

In the Austrian War of Succession in 1743 and in the coalition wars from 1792, the monastery served several times and various warring parties as quarters .

Until 1803 the monastery provided social, medical and cultural supplies for the surrounding area.

Modern times

In 1802 troops of Landgrave Ludwig X. of Hessen-Darmstadt occupied the monastery and dissolved it as a spiritual institution. The inventory was auctioned, including the 42,000 liters of wine stored there, which brought the highest proceeds. Part of the property was sold, the rest of the property was transferred to the state. The archive , the library of 5,500 books and 126 paintings were brought to Darmstadt . The last 20 monks were compensated with pensions . Three monks and the abbot took up the offer to stay in the monastery for the rest of their lives.

In the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , Kurmainz was dissolved in 1803 and added to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , which was renamed the Grand Duchy of Hessen in 1806 . The former Landgrave Ludwig X of Hessen-Darmstadt, now Grand Duke Ludewig I , handed over the former abbey church of St. Marcellinus and Peter to the Roman Catholic parish in 1812 .

The remaining buildings of the monastery were used by state authorities and the judiciary until the 1960s as official buildings. The monastery complex has remained in state hands since secularization and is now owned by the State of Hesse . It has been looked after by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse (VSG) since 1948 . Since the 1980s, the monastery complex has been gradually overhauled and restored, the model being the last heyday of the monastery in the 17th and 18th centuries. This characterizes the appearance today.

Investments

Apart from the church, nothing is known of the original layout of the 9th century. The oldest surviving components date from the 11th century.

Monastery church

Monastery courtyard, view of the prelature wing

The former monastery church is one of the oldest structures in the monastery.

Entrance situation

The enclosed complex is entered from the west through a baroque gate that leads visitors into the cloister courtyard. In its center, the Angel Garden was laid out in 1995 , a baroque statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels and saints. The former barns on the southern edge of the monastery courtyard are now used by the city library.

building

Summer refectory
Monastery mill

Parts of the structure of the convent building date from the 11th century, but the main part from the reconstruction from the time after the Thirty Years' War. The main building surrounds the monastery courtyard as a two-wing complex. The wing that runs parallel to the southern nave of the basilica includes

  • the prelature from 1699 - outside the enclosure - with the former abbot's apartment on the ground floor, baroque wall and ceiling frescoes and guest accommodation on the upper floor, including a large apartment with the imperial hall and a library hall from 1730, which was painted around 1731. The building can be visited and also contains one small exhibition on the history of the monastery.
  • the kitchen construction. This has a window to the courtyard, which was used to provide the needy with a meal. The summer refectory from 1620 behind it was converted from a former granary . It is decorated with illusionistic painting by Giovanni Francesco Marchini .
  • the hospital building, which combines kitchen and convent building.

On the side of this wing facing away from the courtyard are the prelature garden and the cloister , of which only two wings have survived, with a fountain made of red sandstone.

At right angles to this complex, the construction continues to the south in a second wing, the

  • on the courtyard side mainly consists of the "Old Abbey". The historic pharmacy established by Abbot Petrus IV in 1720 was reconstructed in its original location here in 2002. A pharmacist garden with around 200 medicinal herbs was laid out on the garden side of the building.
  • on the garden side consists of the convent building. This forms an elongated wing of the building on the east side of the complex, the main facade of which faces the convent garden. At its southern end were the outlets. The RegioMuseum (formerly: Landscape Museum Seligenstadt ) exhibits in the convent and hospital building . The focus is on Roman times , monastery and town history as well as folklore . Under the convent and hospital building there are large vaulted cellars, which formerly served as a wine cellar and are now used as a lapidarium and event rooms.

Part of the farm buildings have also been preserved, including a grain mill from 1574 that was restored to working condition in 1993 and worked as a water mill . A bakery (also operational with a weekly demonstration day at the Franconian stone oven), the wash house and a pigeon house (1992) can be found in the monastery courtyard. The craft building was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century.

garden

Basilica of St. Marcellinus and Peter, view from the convent garden from the southeast

On the east side of the monastery complex extends the 30,000 m 2 large convent garden, in which originally only fruit, vegetables and herbs were grown before the abbots changed it in the late 17th century for representative purposes.

From 1986 the convent garden was reconstructed into a kitchen garden in the shape of the baroque park on the basis of sources and excavation finds .

The garden is a ground floor with broderie borders, a fountain (around 1720) in the center and flowering potted plants and citrus trees that overwinter in an orangery (probably from 1757). The orangery has a sloping, glazed south wall, which is supposed to ensure the best possible incidence of light. The east side of the basilica with its crossing tower and choir is clearly visible from the convent garden.

Moated castle

The abbot Franziskus II. Blöchinger had today's moated castle built around 1700 or 1705 in place of an older complex . It served as a garden house for the early modern courtly festival culture in the garden of the Seligenstadt abbots. The complex was built in the style of a late medieval castle with a moat, drawbridge and four small corner towers. At that time, however, there was no longer any fortification purpose, so these features were only used for decoration.

Worth knowing

The background on the painting Stuppacher Madonna by Matthias Grünewald (approx. 1516) is supposed to show Seligenstadt, perhaps the monastery garden. In any case, the VSG set up a beehive in the monastery garden that corresponds to the one shown in the painting.

Web links

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

literature

  • Horst Becker: On the history of the secularization of the Seligenstadt abbey . In: Archive for Hessian History and Archeology NF 49 (1991), pp. 147–182.
  • Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments - Hesse II. Administrative region Darmstadt . (Ed .: Folkhard Cremer et al.), 3rd edition, Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-422-03117-3
  • Traute Endemann: The secularization in Hessen-Darmstadt using the example of the Seligenstadt Abbey . In: Archive for Hessian History and Archeology NF 62 (2004), pp. 95–126.
  • Georg Ulrich Großmann : Central and South Hesse = DuMont art travel guide, Cologne 1995. ISBN 3-7701-2957-1
  • Anja Kalinowski: The former Benedictine Abbey Seligenstadt. Guide through the monastery complex and showrooms = edition of the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse. Brochure 30. Schnell + Steiner, 2nd edition Regensburg 2008.
  • Johannes Gottfried Mayer : Monastery medicine: the herb gardens in the former monastery complexes of Lorsch and Seligenstadt. Verlag Schnell and Steiner 2002, ISBN 978-3-7954-1429-0 * Bernd Modrow, Claudia Gröschel: Princely pleasure. 400 years of garden culture in Hessen. Schnell + Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7954-1487-3 .
  • Hubert Post: The History of the Benedictine Abbey Seligenstadt. The abbots of the Seligenstadt monastery . Münsterschwarzach 2002.
  • Manfred Schopp: The secular rule of Seligenstadt Abbey 1478 - 1803 . In: Archives for Hessian History and Archeology NF 29 (1965/66), pp. 187–401.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The monastery officially passed to Hessen-Darmstadt on April 1, 1803 (Kalinowski, p. 11).
  2. ↑ Emperor Charles VI. (1711) and Franz II (1792) visited the abbey (LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt ) and the princes of Mainz lived here when they organized hunts in the area (Kalinowski, p. 30).
  3. ↑ The representation of the monastery in the painting on the east wall is based on an engraving from 1713, but was not created by Hermann Velte until 1940–1942 because the original wall painting had been lost here (Kalinowski, p. 45).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grandes Chroniques de France , Bibliothèque nationale de France , Paris, lat. 2813, fol. 85v A, 14th century (1375-1380).
  2. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 52.
  3. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  4. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 9.
  5. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 52.
  6. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  7. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 52.
  8. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  9. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 10.
  10. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  11. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  12. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  13. ↑ So: LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt ; Kalinowski, p. 52, gives the year 1478 for this.
  14. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  15. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  16. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  17. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt ; Kalinowski, p. 53.
  18. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 10, 29ff.
  19. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 53.
  20. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 10.
  21. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  22. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 24.
  23. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 11.
  24. ^ LAGIS: Benedictine monastery Seligenstadt .
  25. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 11.
  26. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 11.
  27. ↑ Homepage of the VSG.
  28. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 13; Dehio, pp. 738f.
  29. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 16.
  30. ↑ Dehio, pp. 738f.
  31. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 29-46; Otto Müller: The prelature of the Seligenstadt abbey. A contribution to the dating of the interiors and decorations . Michelstadt 1988.
  32. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 44-46; Großmann, p. 225; Dehio, pp. 737f.
  33. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 30.
  34. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 20, 47.
  35. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 21, 24, 47-49.
  36. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 24.
  37. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 23f.
  38. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 49.
  39. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 27; VSG homepage.
  40. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 24, 50f.
  41. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 55.
  42. ↑ Regio Museum on the homepage of the district Offenbach .
  43. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 24.
  44. ^ Dehio, p. 739.
  45. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 22.
  46. ↑ Kalinowski, pp. 26-28.
  47. ↑ Homepage of the VSG.
  48. ↑ Großmann, p. 225; Dehio, p. 739; Kalinowski, p. 28.
  49. ↑ Kalinowski, p. 27.

Coordinates: 50 ° 2 ′ 34.3 "  N , 8 ° 58 ′ 43"  E