St. Wolfgang Monastery (Hanau)

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View of the ruined monastery from the north. On the right the tower, in the middle a stone fountain wreath, on the left the remains of the monastery church with sacristy.
Floor plan of the mainly visible structures
St. Wolfgang monastery ruins near Hanau-Wolfgang. 2014 view with excavation sections of the Hanau History Association .
View of the tower from the east. At the left corner you can still see pseudo-cuboids painted in red
View into the apse of the church (today a barbecue area) and the sacristy building.
Inside the sacristy

The ruins of the St. Wolfgang monastery are the remains of a late medieval monastery between Niederrodenbach and Hanau - Wolfgang in the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse . Today's Hanau district of Wolfgang got its name from the monastery.

location

The monastery is located roughly in the middle between the present-day towns of Hanau-Wolfgang and Niederrodenbach, each about 1.5 km from the outskirts. The extensive alluvial forest area of ​​the Bulau gradually merges into the front Spessart , which, due to the sandy soils, consists mainly of pine forest. To the south is the “ Rote Lache ” nature reserve , which probably got its name from the numerous occurrences of lawn iron stone here. The area around the monastery is riddled with numerous large and small pits, which probably go back to the mining of the ore. When this happened is unknown.

The Upper German-Raetian Limes runs about 750 m west of the facility. The ruin is today - quite idyllic - in a forest area not far from the forester's house Wolfgang.

history

The history of the monastery begins with a chapel consecrated to St. Wolfgang , which was built around 1468 by Erasmus Hasefuss, court courtier and trumpeter of Count Philip I the Younger of Hanau. Over time this chapel seems to have become very popular, as a small number of Servite monks (four or five) settled there. The time of the foundation of the monastery can only be fixed approximately between 1490 and 1494. Only an undated copy from the last quarter of the 16th century has survived from a papal confirmation document for the handover of the monastery buildings to the friars. It says, however, that the monks had lived in this place for six years. It is also mentioned that the count handed over a house with a bedroom, dining room and other necessary workshops and had the chapel enlarged.

In his will, Count Philipp left the brothers of St. Wolfgang with the gift of "12 eighths of grain and 4 guilders" so that a mass would be read for him every year.

Few written documents are known from the relatively short history of the monastery. There is a letter from the cardinal legate Raimund Peraudi to the Archbishop of Mainz in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg . The letter probably based on a letter or a description of Count Reinhard IV of Hanau-Münzenberg. And raises serious allegations against the brothers of St. Wolfgang: In the monastery area, many people would gather it done fornication by couplers and madams, there were disputes with fights and they even resulted in fatal wounds. It is seriously doubtful that this is true. This was followed by the proposals to dissolve the monastery and to transfer its income to the Hanau Hospital, which was subordinate to the count, if the allegations were found to be true.

That apparently did not happen, because in 1512 three brothers are named at the funeral of the count, and four priests are said to have participated in the funeral for Katharina von Schwarzburg-Blankenburg , Reinhard IV's widow, in 1515 . In 1520, the Archbishop of Mainz, Albrecht von Brandenburg, again confirmed various privileges to the monastery . In 1525 the monastery was plundered and partially destroyed by Hanau citizens under the leadership of the mayor of Rodenbach during the Peasants' War. The monastery is said to have been destroyed once more and finally “by the common man” in 1527. Then the monastery, which is said to have been inhabited by a prior and four monks , was abandoned.

Near the ruins, Johann Reinhard III. , the last Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg , built the Wolfgang hunting lodge as a hunting lodge in 1715 . It was raised to the status of a chief forester in 1868 and is now home to the Hanau-Wolfgang forestry office and the Hessian seed collection . In the 1830s, Clemens Brentano wrote the fairy tale novel Gockel, Hinkel and Gackeleia (published in 1838) during a stay in the nearby Trages farm at Freigericht . The location descriptions contained therein suggest that the romantic ruins of the monastery served as a template for the location "Gockelsruh".

In 2013, the first excavations by the Hanau History Association took place in the monastery ruins. In the central area of ​​the monastery, further remains of buildings could be documented in a superficially recognizable rubble hill, which are probably to be regarded as ancillary buildings of the monastery. The components found are covered again after documentation. The excavations in the summer of 2014 focused on the tower within the complex and the north aisle of the monastery church. The results of the excavations were exhibited from April 21, 2018 to March 31, 2019 as part of a special exhibition in the Museum Schloss Steinheim .

investment

A large part of the complex is still standing today as a ruin, especially the tower, a sacristy attached to the church interior and a stone fountain wreath (diameter 2.20 m). The foundation walls of the church are still partially visible. Some earth walls in the north suggest other buildings. These may be residential or outbuildings, or the Chapel of St. Wolfgang, for whom it is unclear whether it is identical to the church building.

tower

The (today) free-standing tower with a square base (4.10 m side length) is a little over 10 m high and is closed at the top by a crenellated wreath. This does not include the pyramid-shaped hood, which is unsightly to look at, but prevents water from penetrating the masonry and destroying it in the event of frost ( crevice frost ). It is actually bricked on the inside, but in the last century it was fixed on the outside with shotcrete. The corners of the tower are roughly aligned with the cardinal points.

The masonry consists, as in all buildings that are still visible, of rubble stones of various sizes, mostly local limestone, and sometimes even bricks are walled in. At that time, it was not visible, as shown by the remains of the plaster and pseudo-blocks painted on it, as well as the remains of grouting. The window reveals are completely broken out except for a very small one on the southwest side on the ground floor. Various openings that were walled up and later broken out indicate an unusually large number of alterations in view of the short existence of the monastery. On the first floor there are several window niches and a fireplace inside.

Today there is no connection to the church building to the east, but a sloping roof on the northeast side of the outer wall suggests that a building was once ajar here too.

church

Individual foundation walls can still be seen from the 22.40 m long and 7.40 m wide nave. It is oriented to the east, in the apse there is now a barbecue area that can be rented through the Wolfgang forestry office. A wall running parallel to the south wall indicates a side aisle. The counterpart on the north wall was uncovered in 2013 and 2014, so that a three-aisled church interior must be assumed. Two wall sections on the north wall are less easy to interpret. A small square of the wall at the northwest corner apparently belongs to a staircase or stair tower of a gallery. A section of the wall in front of the sacristy could once have separated the choir and parish rooms. There may also have been a side altar here.

sacristy

Integrated into the north wall of the church is a room that is still almost completely preserved today, popularly known as the "donkey stable". Its external dimensions are 5.45 m × 4.35 m. Presumably it is the sacristy of the monastery church. In the west wall there is a niche in the shape of a segment of a circle, in which there was possibly a Marian altar.

Monument protection

The monastery ruins and the monuments in the ground are cultural monuments according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act . All research, be it excavations, prospecting, digging, targeted collections of finds and changes to the inventory are subject to approval. Accidental finds are to be reported to the monument authorities.

literature

  • Anton Calaminus: The Wolfgang Monastery near Hanau . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies 6 (1854), 305ff.
  • Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. Edited by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 , pp. 590f.
  • Evelin Grönke: Hanau-Wolfgang - late medieval monastery ruins awakened from deep slumber . In: Preservation of Monuments & Cultural History 3/2012, p. 38.
  • Michael Müller, Guntram Schwitalla: No chapel under the "rubble hill" - excavations in the St. Wolfgang monastery ruins, City of Hanau. In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2013. Yearbook for archeology and palaeontology in Hessen. Theiss, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-2984-4 , pp. 172-174.
  • Michael Müller, Guntram Schwitalla: News on the building history of a late medieval monastery - Research 2014 on St. Wolfgang. In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2014. Yearbook for archeology and palaeontology in Hessen. Theiss, Darmstadt 2015, ISBN 978-3-8062-3203-5 , pp. 171-173.
  • Michael Müller, Sandra Spoeck: "... and therefore handed it over to the Beautification Commission for the Four Seasons, the Wind and the Weather" - preliminary report on the excavations in the Wolfgang monastery ruins in 2013/14. In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2015, pp. 3–23.
  • Michael Müller: The history of the St. Wolfgang monastery complex. Published by Wolfganger Geschichtsverein e. V., Hanau 2018.
  • Guntram Schwitalla: The Servite Monastery of St. Wolfgang in Bulau . Leaflet to the ruined monastery near Hanau-Wolfgang, Main-Kinzig-Kreis. Archaeological Monuments in Hesse 114. Published by the Department of Archaeological and Paleontological Monument Preservation in the State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse and the Archaeological Society in Hesse eV (Wiesbaden 1994). ISBN 3-89822-114-8 .
  • Guntram Schwitalla: Hanau-Wolfgang, St. Wolfgang monastery ruins , in: Guide to archaeological monuments in Germany 27. Hanau and the Main-Kinzig district. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, pp. 195–197, ISBN 3-8062-1119-1 .
  • Guntram Schwitalla: News about St. Wolfgang's monastery. In: Svend Hansen / Volker Pingel (Hrsg.): Archeology in Hessen: New finds and findings. Festschrift for Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann on his 65th birthday. Rahden / Westf. 2001, pp. 199-208 ( International Archeology, Studia honoraria 13).
  • Guntram Schwitalla: The St. Wolfgang monastery in Bulau and its prehistory from the earliest beginnings. In: Find reports from Hessen 50, 2010, pp. 761–788.
  • Guntram Schwitalla: Sacristy secured in Wolfgang . In: Monument Preservation and Cultural History 4/2014, p. 35.
  • Gerd Steinwascher: Treasure hunt in the St. Wolfgang monastery in Bulau. A treasure hunt trial from 1668 . in: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 29, 1985, pp. 359-370
  • Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau Stadt und Land , 3rd edition, Hanau 1919, ND 1978.

Web links

Commons : Kloster St. Wolfgang  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Michael Müller, Guntram Schwitalla: No chapel under the "rubble hill" - excavations in the St. Wolfgang monastery ruins, City of Hanau. In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2013. Yearbook for archeology and palaeontology in Hessen. Theiss, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-2984-4 , pp. 172-174.
  2. Michael Müller, Guntram Schwitalla: News on the building history of a late medieval monastery - research 2014 on St. Wolfgang. In: hessenARCHÄOLOGIE 2014. Yearbook for archeology and palaeontology in Hessen. Darmstadt 2015, pp. 171–173.
  3. http://www.hanau.de/kultur/museen/hanau/va/005966/index.html
  4. The description of the system essentially follows the information in Schwitalla 1994 (see literature).
  5. Schwitalla 1994 (Archaeological Monuments in Hesse 114) p. 1

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 59.2 ″  N , 8 ° 59 ′ 49.9 ″  E