Vogelsburg Abbey
The monastery Vogelburg is a former monastery in the field of district Escherndorf of the Lower Franconian town of Volkach in the diocese of Wuerzburg, in the midst of the Franconian vineyard landscape. The monastery was built in the 13th century on an area where Vogelsburg Castle had been located in the previous centuries . The monastery buildings are in the hallway of the Volkach district of the same name .
history
A monastery on the Vogelsberg has been handed down since the 13th century. The mountain was already settled in prehistoric times. The Counts of Castell converted the preserved facilities into a Carmelite monastery. It was destroyed in the 16th century and the monks fled to Würzburg. The final dissolution took place in 1803. In 1957, church life moved back into the buildings of the Vogelsburg.
Prehistory (up to 13th century)
The prehistory of the monastery begins in the Stone Age. The first traces of settlement on the Vogelsberg point to the band ceramists of the Neolithic Age. The exposed space of the complex could also speak for a religious cult center of the settlers on the Mainschleife. This settlement did not end in the following millennia either. The complex was fortified as early as the early Bronze Age , and the Celts further expanded the fortifications in the 3rd century BC.
The Germanic Franks converted the pagan cult site into a large parish for the entire Main loop. At the same time, the planned expansion of the fortifications into a royal Franconian castle began . In doing so, the already existing ramparts and ditches of the past were used. Gradually, however, the forces on the Mainschleife shifted and the castle lost touch with the important roads of the time. In 742 she became a simple royal castle of the Volkfeldgau, she had lost the parish function to Maria im Weingarten .
In the late 9th century the Frankish kings donated the castle to the Fulda monastery . This donation was confirmed again in 906 and made the castle a monastery property. With the decline of the Fulda convent in the 11th and 12th centuries, other, secular lords seized the crumbling castle on the Vogelsberg. At this time, the Counts of Castell tried to gain access to the Main and became the new owners of the facilities.
Founding of a monastery (up to the 15th century)
The history of the monastery on the Vogelsberg begins under the rule of Count Hermann zu Castell . According to tradition, he brought monks with him from a trip to Jerusalem in 1282. They came from the Carmel Mountains and were therefore assigned to the Carmelite Order. With their settlement on the Berg am Main , Hermann founded one of the first of their monasteries in Germany. The aim of the foundation was to create a burial place for his family. The monastery was subordinated to St. George and henceforth called "Mons Dei" (God's mountain).
The monastery did not receive much property from its patron. The monks were only able to cultivate the markings around the small monastery complex. The original fortifications no longer existed, but the remains that can be seen in the ground were used to draw the boundaries of the district. In addition, the Carmelites received interest income from around 16 villages. Since these were not enough to offer the monastery material independence, the Würzburg prince-bishops allowed in 1318 and 1325 to collect alms in the entire diocese and to accept confessions.
In the middle of the 15th century, a dispute began with the Astheim Charterhouse , which put an additional burden on the monastery's income. Both sides insisted on their marking borders, an arbitration was only achieved in 1469 by the Würzburg bishop Rudolf II von Scherenberg . The construction of a new church was completed by 1497, and in 1499 Count Jörg zu Castell was already celebrating a funeral service for his ancestors on the mountain. At the same time, the monks tried to set up a pilgrimage to Mary, but failed because of the close competition in Dettelbach and Volkach .
Destruction (up to the 18th century)
With the Reformation and the turmoil of the Peasants' War, the 16th century brought the end of the independent Vogelsburg monastery. On May 1, 1525, farmers from Escherndorf looted the monastery, destroyed documents and papers and set the buildings on fire. The monks and their prior were expelled to Würzburg and found shelter in the local Carmelite monastery of St. Barbara . The destruction made monastic life on the mountain impossible.
Just a few years after the destruction, in 1545, the monks finally joined the sister monastery in Würzburg. From then on the facilities on the Vogelsberg remained empty and only two priests from Würzburg held church services. Despite this reorganization, the monastery remained. The fact that the Counts of Castell converted to the evangelical confession in the middle of the 16th century did not stand in the way of the Catholic tradition of the monastery.
The reconstruction of the destroyed buildings began in the 16th century. In 1562 and 1564, the Würzburg monastery received money for repairs. The Thirty Years' War in the 17th century brought further destruction. However, the vacant buildings were of no interest to the Swedes passing through and thus escaped complete destruction. After the war, the monastery was administered by a Würzburg Vogt .
At the beginning of the 18th century a general renovation of the monastery buildings was tackled and the monastery church was rebuilt. In 1703 the Counts of Castell transferred the bones of their ancestors to the new church, thus continuing the traditional family burial.
Re-use (until today)
In the 19th century the monastery fell victim to secularization . The buildings were bought in 1803 for 3,000 guilders to Dr. Baumhämel from Schweinfurt sold. However, he was unable to raise the amount and the systems were put up for sale again. In the meantime, the Escherndorf pastor had brought the church's most valuable furnishings to the branch in Köhler, where they are still located today.
The new owners in 1805 were the Blendel family from Escherndorf. In 1805 the bones and epitaphs of the Castell counts disappeared . They reappeared in the St. Peter and Paul Church in Rüdenhausen in 1809. In the period that followed, the Vogelsburg received changing owners until the Bishop of Würzburg discovered that the sale was illegitimate in the nineties of the 19th century . After legal disputes, the current owners were awarded their property.
In 1895 Georg Josef Walter bought the system for 34,200 marks. He converted the castle into an excursion restaurant with a restaurant. Since the plans for the construction of the Mainschleifenbahn had become concrete, he campaigned for the creation of a Vogelsburg stop, which was also set up in 1909. In 1922 this stop was closed again, but the Vogelsburg became more and more a tourist destination in the surrounding area.
Walter's daughter Philippine took over the management of the restaurant during the Second World War and managed to renovate the monastery buildings. At the same time, she planned to rebuild a monastery on the mountain. At the beginning of the 1950s a delegation of the Paulus sisters from Speyer arrived in Volkach. However, their plans to build a children's home failed due to the use of the facility for day trippers.
It was not until 1957 that a long lease was drawn up with the community of the Augustine Sisters, who were now to manage the monastery. On November 24th of the same year, Bishop Josef Stangl rededicated the monastery church. At the same time, the construction of new monastery buildings began, which should serve as a conference venue. After Philippine Walter's death, the sisters became owners of the property. In 2010, the Juliusspital Würzburg Foundation took over the facility. The Vogelsburg was rebuilt from November 2013 to mid-July 2015. The Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments has the preserved buildings on the Vogelsberg under monument number D-6-75-174-313. Underground remains of the previous buildings are classified as ground monuments.
Building history
The first transmission of buildings on the Vogelsburg was the deed of donation from the year 906. A castle with a chapel is mentioned in it, but the sources are silent about the exact location and size of the buildings. The chapel could have been a simple rectangular room with a recessed choir or choir tower as a hall structure . However, it may just mean a simple, small wooden building.
In 1314 the wall surrounding the monastery was extended. Over a century later, in the years before 1497, work began on rebuilding the church. The reason for the new building was the attempt to establish a pilgrimage to the monastery. The church corresponded to the late Gothic . The choir that still exists today comes from this construction phase. The destruction in 1525 largely destroyed the monastery buildings and left the church in a ruinous state.
Initially, the buildings were poorly repaired in 1562 and 1564, but they were not completely rebuilt. The renovations in 1645/1646 and 1700 also only applied to the outbuildings of the monastery, which served the Würzburg Vogt as a place of residence and work. In the Thirty Years War there was largely no destruction, so that a new church building could be considered in the 18th century.
The church was completed in 1702/1704. The lateral outer wall had been relocated and a new western end was built. It was much smaller than the old one. Only the choir of the old church and two window axes on the north side remained, so that the windows were distributed asymmetrically. In addition, a roof rider was put on. The only consecrated area inside was a small chapel in the south-west corner of the old church.
With the secularization, the church was profaned in 1803 and converted into a storage room. In 1908, the owner at the time had a concrete ceiling put in just below the windows, creating a two-story interior. With the settlement of the nuns in 1957, the church was renewed. The executive architect was chief building director Hubert Groß , who among other things had a staircase to the new upper church hall built.
In 1972 the new sister building was built on the site of an old barn . Before that, in 1961, Haus Martha had already been built as a new restaurant. After further renovations and a building extension in 1979/1980, a comprehensive renovation of the building stock on the Vogelsburg began in 2014, which was completed in 2015. In 2015 scheduled excavations began on the mountain for the first time .
description
The monastery complex on the mountain consists of several buildings from different epochs. The Church of the Virgin Mary rises to the northeast of the site. To the south are the oldest monastery buildings of the 17th century. To the west of the church is the former nunnery, the inn fills the west side of the complex.
church
The former church of the monastery is east. It has a single nave and as a hall church has no transept. A gable roof , which merges into the hipped roof of the choir in the east , covers the nave. In the 18th century, a roof turret was placed on the east side of the church. While the choir and the eastern part of the church building date back to the 15th century and can therefore be assigned to the late Gothic, the other elements were added in later centuries. The church is consecrated to St. Mary and is also called the Protection of Mary.
Outside, the church is divided to the east by five buttresses at the choir. The three-axis nave has three pointed arched windows without tracery on the north side , one of the two in the south is considerably lower than the other. The west facade is the only one with several ox eyes , a statue of Joseph in a niche and a prayer bell with a wooden roof.
A portal offset to the south leads into the interior of the church. It is decorated with the Carmelite coat of arms and the year 1702 and is crowned by a blown gable. Plain sandstone walls surround it. You enter the church on the ground floor, where a staircase leads to the upper floor, built in 1908, with today's church service room. A simple wooden flat ceiling delimits the church space.
Outbuildings and remains of walls
The oldest outbuilding on the monastery grounds adjoins the church in the south and can be entered through a door inside the church. It is L-shaped and forms a small forecourt with the church. A red hipped roof covers the two-story building with dormer windows . The other windows are rectangular and have drilled frames. The door on the west side also has ear framing .
The inn in the west of the complex was not built until 1961. It was called Haus Martha and, like the monastery buildings, has two floors. It has dormers and an L-shaped floor plan. At the beginning of the 21st century, the renovations created a connecting corridor between the old monastery building and the guest building. The viewing terrace in the south of the complex is reached through a colonnade.
The sister house, also known as paradise, has a balcony protruding far to the front and, like the other buildings, dormer windows. A small annex was subsequently built further to the north. Remnants of the wall surround the complex in the east, where a round-arched portal bears the number 1497, and in the south. There the site can be entered via a vineyard path through a rectangular portal. The originally complete walling was abandoned in the 20th century in favor of access roads in the north.
Wayside shrines
There are two wayside shrines from the 17th century on the grounds . There are more tortures, cross tugs and altars in the Vogelsburg area. The oldest wayside shrine is on the portal on the south side. It is a three-sided wayside shrine made of sandstone. Three reliefs show the coronation of Mary , the crucifixion and the division of the mantle by St. Martin . The wayside shrine was created around 1600 and is managed by the State Office for Monument Preservation under the number D-6-75-174-314.
The second wayside shrine is in the northwest of the former monastery. A round column shaft with an ornate console leads to the rectangular wayside shrine. The Pietà can be seen in the center , it is surrounded by two reliefs of saints on the narrow sides. An inscription on the back describes the circumstances of the erection of the torture and states the year of construction 1677. A cross crowns the wayside shrine. The monument is classified under monument number D-6-75-174-315.
Farther away, in the far west of the Vogelsburg district, there is an altar from 1743 with sweeping volutes and wide cornices. It shows Mary with the child and St. Michael . At the ascent to the castle there is a cross tug on a pillar, which was also built in the 18th century.
Equipment of the monastery church
Three phases of equipment can be identified for the monastery church. Before secularization, it was shaped by objects from the Baroque period. In the 20th century, the interior was designed with items purchased from local artists. Since the redesign in 2014/2015, the interior of the monastery church has been simple. Works of art were largely avoided.
Equipment of the old monastery church
Most of the furnishings were sold to various parishes in the area after the church was profaned. The small branch church of St. Andreas in Köhler benefited most from this . Two altars and the pulpit from the Vogelsburg have been preserved there. The high altar has four columns and was probably built around 1730. The original altarpiece was removed. The side altar with the image of the Adoration of Maria Neapolitana was created a little earlier, while the pulpit is from the late Baroque era.
The so-called Mother of God of the Vogelsburg is located on the Würzburger Käppele . It was possibly the destination of a local pilgrimage that can be dated to around 1500. The three-quarter round figure probably came to Würzburg at the beginning of the 18th century and was first placed in the cloister of the cathedral . Miracles are said to have occurred there, so that the figure was brought to the Käppele in order not to disturb the course of the service by the rush of visitors.
Our Lady is presented today in a glazed aedicular frame in the right side wall of the Mercy Chapel. The figure comes from the second half of the 15th century and shows the crowned Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon . In her arms lies the child Jesus, also with a crown, who is holding an apple in his left hand and putting a finger in his mouth.
Equipment of the monastery church until 2014
Most of the furnishings in the monastery church originated in the second half of the 20th century. The church had previously been dissolved and the equipment distributed. The first element that fell victim to the decline of the monastery was the miraculous image. It was brought to the Käppele in Würzburg in 1797 . After the secularization, the altars and the epitaphs followed, which are now in Koehler and Rüdenhausen, respectively. With the church consecration in 1957, a modern replacement had to be provided.
The simple folk altar , which stands in the center of the choir, is part of the basic equipment of the church . Behind it, a colored choir center window was installed to replace the missing altar sheet. It shows in bright colors the Most Holy Trinity , which is represented by Jesus, the dove of the Holy Spirit and the hand of God. Below, much darker, St. Augustine prays in the midst of vines.
To the right of the altar, further in the direction of the nave, there is a wooden sculpture of Mary with child on a stele made of shell limestone . It was created by Philipp Emmeram Höcht. Her arms embrace the baby Jesus and thus symbolize the church name Maria Schutz. Another wooden statue as a half-sculpture on the north side wall of the nave represents the Cosmic Christ .
Further north, on a pedestal on the wall, is the statue of John the Baptist . It goes back to a foundation of Pastor Edmund Herold. His passion for bees earned him the nickname “bee pastor”. This is also underlined by the conception of the statue, in which Johannes holds a honeycomb in his right hand. The stations of the so-called Terracotta Way of the Cross run through the walls of the nave.
A small organ with a wooden case was installed in the west of the church for the musical arrangement of the service . In the staircase there is a memorial stone from 1814, which was originally attached to a vineyard wall in the Escherndorf district. It shows St. Laurentius , an inscription names Lorenz Schlier and his wife as donors. It is listed as an architectural monument by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation under the number D-6-75-174-224.
Say
Several legends refer to the Vogelsburg. One tells the story of the occupation of the monastery by Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War, during which they put the nuns of the complex into large barrels with nails and tumbled down the vineyards. In reality, nuns never lived on the mountain, and the Swedes never occupied the empty buildings during the war.
Another narrative takes up the frequently used dragon motif . A knight lived in the castle with his wife and daughter Gertraud. The girl was chosen to be thrown to a dragon for food as a human sacrifice. A knight saved the knight's daughter and killed the dragon. He then married the girl and became the successor to the old man of the Vogelsburg.
Priors
After it was founded in the 13th century until its decline in the 16th century, priors directed the monastery on the Vogelsberg. After the destruction in 1525, the complex was co-administered by the priors of the Barbarakloster in Würzburg. The first prior is only known from the year 1427.
| Surname | Term of office | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Conradus von Langheim | 1427 | |
| Henricus Zierl | 1428-1431 | |
| Johannes Auerbach | 1432-1433 | |
| Henricus Zierl | 1435-1438 | |
| Wortwinus | 1439-1440 | |
| Kilianus of Sal | 1441-1442 | |
| Andreas Hertlein | 1443-1445 | |
| Friedrich von Schwabach | 1447-1449 | First term |
| Johannes Röttelsee | 1451 | |
| Petrus Stockheimer | 1452-1454 | First term |
| Friedrich von Schwabach | 1456 | Second term |
| Petrus Stockheimer | 1458-1464 | Second term |
| Petrus Plum | 1467 | |
| Johannes Tinctoris | 1469-1475 | |
| Johannes Luppach | 1478-1502 | |
| Johannes Zollinger | 1505-1510 | |
| Petrus Schweicker | 1513-1514 | |
| Johannes Thurendorfer | 1519 | |
| Wilhelm Rabs | 1522-1529 | From 1525 in exile in Würzburg |
Grave of the Counts of the Castell family
The monastery church was chosen as the future burial place of the Castell family when it was founded. Count Hermann I zu Castell, the founder of the monastery, was the first to be buried there after his death around 1289. However, only three Counts of Castell found their final resting place in the Church of the Virgin Mary. All bones were transferred to the church of St. Peter and Paul in Rüdenhausen in 1703 ( see also Birklingen Monastery # Gravege of the Counts Castell , St. Johannes (Castell) # Burials of the Counts Castell and St. Peter and Paul (Rüdenhausen) #Burying place of the Count family Castell ).
| Surname | Life dates | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Hermann I. Count and Mr. zu Castell | † around 1289 | Monastery donors |
| Friedrich IV. Count and Lord zu Castell | † May 6, 1325 | Son of Count Hermann II and Mr. zu Castell |
| Hermann III. Count and Lord of Castell | † February 2, 1363 | Son of Count Friedrich II and Lord zu Castell |
See also
literature
- Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
- Hermenegild Maria Biedermann: Vogelsburg, Escherndorf, Köhler . Regensburg 1982.
- Wolfgang Brückner, Wolfgang Schneider: Pilgrimage in the Diocese of Würzburg. Places of grace, places of worship and worship in Lower Franconia (= Church, Art and Culture in Franconia, Vol. 3) . Wuerzburg 1996.
- Georg Dehio : Handbook of the German art monuments. Bavaria I: Franconia . Munich and Berlin 1999.
- Gerhard Egert: Vogelsburg . In: Jesko Graf zu Dohna (ed.): Kulturpfad. In the footsteps of the Counts of Castell . Castell 2004. pp. 110-112.
- Herbert Meyer: The Vogelsburg - in the middle of a blessed landscape . In: Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Our Main Loop. 1993-2007 . Volkach 2008.
- Herbert Meyer: From Gottesberg to the pearl of Franconia. The Vogelsburg in the 19th and 20th centuries . In Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Our Main Loop. 1993-2007 . Volkach 2008.
- Christian Peschek: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . Würzburg 1971.
- Friedrich Stein: History of the Counts and Lords of Castell from their first appearance to the beginning of the new era. 1058-1528 . Schweinfurt 1892.
- Karl Treutwein : From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. History, sights, traditions . Volkach 1987.
Web links
- Vogelsburg Monastery , basic data and history: Vogelsburg - A Gottesberg am Main in the database of monasteries in Bavaria in the House of Bavarian History
- Website of the conference hotel Vogelsburg
- Vogelsburg.info All around the Vogelsburg on the Mainschleife
- Community of the Augustine Sisters e. V. Würzburg and Vogelsburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ See: Meyer, Herbert: The Vogelsburg - middle of a blessed landscape .
- ^ Pescheck, Christian: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 39.
- ^ Biedermann, Hermenegild Maria: Vogelsburg, Escherndorf, Koehler . P. 2.
- ^ Castell culture path: Vogelsburg , accessed on February 17, 2014.
- ^ Bauer, Hans: District of Kitzingen . P. 18.
- ↑ Meyer, Herbert: From Gottesberg to the pearl of Franconia . P. 369.
- ^ Stiftung Juliusspital Würzburg: Vogelsburg , accessed on March 26, 2013.
- ↑ Geodata: Monument number D-6-75-174-313 , accessed on February 18, 2014.
- ^ Pescheck, Christian: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 48.
- ^ Biedermann, Hermenegild Maria: Vogelsburg, Escherndorf, Koehler . P. 3.
- ↑ Main Post of February 6, 2014: A look into the beginnings of the Vogelsburg , accessed on February 20, 2014.
- ↑ Community of the Augustinians: Church of the Protection of the Virgin Mary , accessed on February 20, 2014.
- ^ Dehio, Georg: Handbook of German art monuments . P. 1073.
- ↑ Meyer, Herbert: From Gottesberg to the pearl of Franconia . P. 373.
- ↑ Geodata: Monument number D-6-75-174-314 , accessed on February 21, 2014.
- ↑ Geodata: Monument number D-6-75-174-315 , accessed on February 21, 2014.
- ^ Biedermann, Hermenegild Maria: Vogelsburg, Escherndorf, Koehler . P. 13.
- ↑ Brückner, Wolfgang; Schneider, Wolfgang: Pilgrimage in the Diocese of Würzburg . P. 256 f.
- ^ Treutwein, Karl: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim . P. 252.
- ↑ Geodata: Architectural monuments Volkach , PDF file, p. 7, accessed on February 22, 2014.
- ^ Treutwein, Karl: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim . P. 253.
- ^ Pescheck, Christian: The Vogelsburg in the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 45.
- ↑ Stein, Friedrich: History of the Counts and Lords of Castell . P. 89.
Churches: Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Gaibach) | Evangelical Church (Krautheim) | Mariä Schutz (Vogelsburg) | Maria in the vineyard | St. Andreas (Koehler) | St. Bartholomäus and St. Georg (Volkach) | St. Georg (Rimbach) | St. Johannes Baptist (Escherndorf) | St. John Baptist (Fahr) | St. Johannes Evangelist (Astheim) | St. Maria de Rosario (Dimbach) | St. Michael (Volkach) | St. Nikolaus (Obervolkach) | St. Stephanus (Eichfeld)
Chapels: Field Chapel (Volkach) | Cemetery chapel (Fahr) | Holy Cross Chapel (Gaibach) | Jesus on the Wies (Rimbach) | Kreuzkapelle (Fahr) | Lourdes Chapel (Escherndorf) | Michaelskapelle (Obervolkach) | Round Chapel (Astheim)
Profane churches: Klosterkirche (Astheim)
Coordinates: 49 ° 52 ′ 2.3 ″ N , 10 ° 11 ′ 0.2 ″ E