Wörschweiler Monastery
| Wörschweiler Cistercian Abbey | |
|---|---|
 Church portal and inner courtyard (cloister) |
|
| location |
 Germany Saarland |
| Coordinates: | 49 ° 17 '3 " N , 7 ° 18' 27" E |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
414 |
| founding year | 1171 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
1558 |
| Mother monastery | Villers-Bettnach Abbey |
| Primary Abbey | Morimond Monastery |
Wörschweiler Monastery (Verneri-Villerium) is a former abbey of the Cistercian monks in Saarland . The monastery was located in what is now the Wörschweiler district of the Saarland city of Homburg in the forest on a 315 m high ridge above the village. The name Werschweiler is also used in older literature .
history
The abbey was founded in 1131 by Count Friedrich I von Saar Werden and his wife Gertrud on the site of a Roman complex "Gloria Romanorum" as a Benedictine monastery and was settled by monks from Hornbach monastery under a prior, but in 1171 by the Cistercian monastery Villers-Bettnach in Lorraine taken over and subordinated to this as a subsidiary monastery. So it belonged to the filiation of the primary abbey of Morimond . There was a monastery courtyard in Münchwies . In 1558 the monastery was abolished by the evangelical Duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken after its decline in the 16th century, but abbots were still appointed for the possessions of the monastery in Lorraine in the Villers-Bettnach monastery. In 1614 it was destroyed in a fire as a result of an accident. The farm buildings were used again from 1662. Uncovering work took place from 1872 to 1880. During excavations between 1954 and 1958, the church was uncovered by Josef Adolf Schmoll called Eisenwerth .
Plant and buildings
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The altitude is atypical for a Cistercian building, but can be traced back to the earlier membership of the Benedictine order (cf. Disibodenberg Monastery ). In addition, the layout of the three-aisled, vaulted church, built around 1265, a pillar basilica made of sandstone, largely corresponded to the Cistercian scheme to which a choir with a straight end, a transept with two side chapels on the east side and a nave with three bays (a fourth was probably planned, but was not carried out) in the central nave in the bound system with pointed arched rib vaults on short wall columns and ridge vaults in the side aisles. The west facade has a triple stepped portal and remains of a large rose window. The church, which is related to that in Eußerthal Monastery (also a subsidiary of Villers-Bettnach), had a large square vestibule built in the 14th century with a central column that extended over the central nave and the north aisle. The enclosure was south (right) of the church. On the south side of the cloister was a conspicuously small well house that was not fed by a spring but by a well. The Konversenflügel was separated from the cloister by a monastery alley (see e.g. Eberbach Monastery ). The chapter house was divided by two columns. The complex has been preserved in a ruinous condition. Numerous grave slabs have also been preserved, some of which were erected on site and some of which are kept in the Roman Museum in Schwarzenacker .
Drawing from 1810
- Explanation of the markings (text from the manuscript No. 1831/964, Trier City Library)
- A First gate with a front wall, which barely protrudes 2 shoes from the earth with a cuboid.
- B Second gate and a side door, unplaced by blocks and a second wall.
- C Entrance in the antechamber. - According to old custom, the place of the penitents.
- D Main entrance to the church, all four entrances in a sense stood in one direction. - The design of the entrance is according to the taste of the 15th century. - A cross and 2 roses are visible on the upper stone.
- E The "church building with the large round church window that still exists to the west? And on the outer side still visible half-pillars to the gallery vault. - Everything from ashlars.
- F The chapter house, behind which several foundations of buildings, cellar vaults, wells etc. are noticeable against the eastern sloping mountain peak.
- G The former courtyard building.
- H A strange hill raised not by nature but by human hands, about 28 to 30 shoes high. - It is some distance from the first entrance of the monastery - which either served for defense in the stormy Middle Ages because the mountain on which the monastery stands - forms a narrow pass with the continuous part here - or from the times of the Romans, the have left such frequent monuments in this district, perhaps including a tomb.
literature
- in alphabetic order -
- Günther Binding , Matthias Untermann : Small art history of medieval order architecture in Germany . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2001.
- Georg Dehio , Hans Caspary, Wolfgang Götz, Ekkart Klinge: Handbook of German art monuments. Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland . Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-422-00382-7 , pp. 1147–1150.
- Heribert Feldhaus: Cistercian monastery and castle Louisenthal / Gutenbrunnen , Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7954-7019-7 .
- Stefan Flesch: Section 5.3. Wörschweiler. In: The monastic writing culture of the Saar region in the Middle Ages. Publications of the Commission for Saarland State History and Folk Research 20, Saarbrücken 1991.
- Hans-Walter Herrmann and Josef Adolf Schmoll called Eisenwerth : Wörschweiler Monastery 1131–1981. In: Homburger Hefte , year 1981.
- Andreas Neubauer: Regesten of the Werschweiler monastery . Publishing house of the Historical Association of the Palatinate, Speier am Rhein 1921. Digitized
- Peter Pfister (Ed.): Guide to all Cistercian monasteries in German-speaking countries . Éditions du Signe, Strasbourg 1998, ISBN 2-87718-596-6 , p. 428.
- Ambrosius Schneider: Lexical overview of the male monasteries of the Cistercians in the German language and cultural area . In: Schneider, Wienand, Bickel, Coester: The Cistercians . Wienand, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-87909-132-3 , p. 698 f.
Web links
- Literature on the Wörschweiler Monastery in the Saarland Bibliography
- Grave slabs from the Wörschweiler Monastery in the Roman Museum Schwarzenacker on the Saarland Museum Association - DigiCULT
- Website about Wörschweiler Monastery
Individual evidence
- ^ Andreas Neubauer: Regesten of the Wörschweiler Monastery. Published by the Historisches Verein der Pfalz e. V., 1921, p. 22