Wettingen Monastery
| Wettingen Monastery | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view of the Wettingen monastery |
|
| location |
 Switzerland Canton of Aargau |
| Lies in the diocese | until 1841 exemte abbey , today diocese of Basel |
| Coordinates: | 47 ° 27 '23 " N , 8 ° 18' 57.2" E |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
598 |
| Patronage | BMV Maris stella |
| founding year | 1227 |
| Cistercian since | 1227 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
1841 |
| Mother monastery | Salem Imperial Abbey |
| Primary Abbey | Morimond Monastery |
| Congregation | Upper German Cistercian Congregation (until 1806), then Swiss Cistercian Congregation (until 1841) |
The Wettingen Abbey ( Latin Abbatia BMV Maris Stella Wettingensis ) was a exemte Cistercian abbey in Wettingen in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It was founded in 1227 and abolished in the course of secularization in 1841.
history
Baron Heinrich II von Rapperswil bought goods in Wettingen after 1220 as well as the right of patronage over the church in the village. After Heinrich was miraculously rescued from distress at sea during the Crusades , he donated his possessions in Wettingen to the Salem Monastery , a Cistercian abbey in the north of Lake Constance. The Schänis Monastery donated the land required for the new building . The Salem abbot Eberhard von Rohrdorf sent the twelve monks and a few lay brothers necessary for a new foundation under the designated Abbot Konrad, previously Eberhard's deputy.
On October 14, 1227, the monks began building the monastery, which was named Maris Stella (Star of the Sea). In memory of their generous donors, the motto was “Non mergor” ( Latin for “I'm not going under”). In 1256 the Maria Meerstern monastery church, like all churches of the Cistercian order , was consecrated to our Heavenly Mother of God , with the patronage festival on August 15th. Right from the start, the monastery was able to increase its property with goods in Uri , Zurich , Riehen and above all in the Limmat Valley around Wettingen. Most of it was free float. In the Limmat Valley, the abbey had lower jurisdiction . The Habsburgs were the patrons of the monastery until 1415 , then the Confederates .
In the early 16th century the monastery was badly weakened due to financial problems. In 1507 a fire destroyed parts of the monastery and its utility buildings:
«Anno Domini 1507 on the eleventh april on the Saturday after the Easter holidays, a house of worship in Wettingen burned down very badly. Namely the munster, orgeln, thurn, altar taffeln, gesteul [= stalls] in the choir [,] buocher, sampt all church-decorated, cloister, refectorium, cellar and all fass sampt three hundred hem white, trotting, bind- and werckhaus, shear, kuchi, ettliche rooms, ship [= vessels] and crockery and different fil more, like then in a closter more then vil von notten. And if the citizens of one city Baden, sampt other neighboring ones, not so faithfully come to Hulff, the whole house of God would be well fountain. What heat then harmed the sixteen thousand guilders. " ( Heinrich Murer :)
In 1529 Abbot Georg Müller and the majority of the monks converted to the Reformed faith. After the Second Kappel War of 1531, the Catholic places decreed the re-Catholicization of the monastery and appointed the abbots themselves until 1564 .
Under the leadership of Abbot Christoph Silberysen (1563–1594), richly illustrated chronicles were created in the monastery ; the abbey received new colored glass windows and stand panes. The monastery flourished under Abbot Peter Schmid (1594 to 1633). The buildings were restored and expanded, in 1604 the monastery opened a philosophy and theology school , and in 1671 its own printing house.
During the Second Villmerger War of 1712, the monks had to flee to central Switzerland for some time. In the turmoil after the French Revolution , the monastery was a refuge for thousands of religious and political refugees from France.
In 1803 the monastery came into the possession of the newly founded canton of Aargau, which initially assured its continued existence. However, the monastery was obliged to run a school. From 1830, the Aargau government made ever higher demands on the monastery. In 1834 the property was placed under state supervision, a ban on novices was imposed and the convent school closed. On January 13, 1841, the Aargau canton parliament decided to abolish all Aargau monasteries, which led to the Aargau monastery dispute.
Shortly afterwards the monks - among them Alberich Zwyssig , the composer of the Swiss Psalm - had to leave the monastery. The extensive holdings of the monastery library were taken over by the Aargau Cantonal Library. The monks moved around for a few years and on June 8, 1854, made the secularized Benedictine monastery Mehrerau in Bregenz their new settlement. This abbey has since been known as the Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau and is directly subordinate to the Holy See under canon law . The abbot bears the title of Abbot of Wettingen and Prior of Mehrerau.
The empty buildings in Wettingen were made available to the Wettingen cantonal teachers' college in 1843 . The premises have been used by the Wettingen Cantonal School since 1976 .
Burial place
Important noble families of the region found their final resting place in Wettingen Monastery. Among them Arnold von Wart , who was married to Anna von Teufen , and Ita von Tegerfelden , the wife of Ulrich II von Klingen . Large sarcophagi from the Middle Ages, such as those of Rudolf von Habsburg-Laufenburg, have been preserved in the monastery church .
building
The monastery consists of a large number of buildings. These are spread over the inner and outer monastery district and in an area outside the former protective ring. The inner monastery district was the actual monastery with the church and the common rooms of the monks, while the outer monastery district comprised the buildings for the supply of the convent and the accommodation of the guests of the monastery. There were other buildings in the vicinity that belonged to the monastery but were subject to secular authorities.
Monastery church
The monastery church was built in the 13th century and was later rebuilt and expanded several times. It is divided into two areas. The rear part of the nave was open to the public during the time when the monastery still existed and is therefore called the Konversenkirche . The front section of the ship is separated from the rear part by a portal and was only accessible to monks and clergy, which is why it is also called the monk's church .
Inner monastery area
The inner monastery area includes the cloister with the surrounding buildings and the east courtyard with the surrounding buildings as well as the monastery church. The construction of the cloister was finished around 1520 under Abbot Johann Müller. It has large Gothic tracery windows facing the cloister garden. The window openings are closed with panes of glass, which comprise a series of cabinet panes with stained glass . The outside of the corridors is closed with walls and accessible from all four sides with doors. Only the wall to the former chapter house has dome windows. On the walls there are plastic figures of Our Lady and the former abbots of the monastery with their coats of arms. Small-format tombstones of monks buried there are embedded in the slab floor.
The cloister chapel is located on the first floor of the east wing near the door to the monastery church . This was built around 1285 and was restored in 1954. The late medieval frescoes were made visible again, which depict the baptism of Jesus and the saints Benedict of Nursia and Antonius Eremita . In the chapel there is a wooden painting of the Wettinger baby Jesus from the 15th century. Numerous scorch marks remind of the miraculous preservation of this image in the devastating fire of the monastery on April 11th 1507, the Sunday after Easter .
The chapter house on the ground floor of the east wing is when music since its renovation in 1954, with its original appearance was restored auditorium used.
Outer monastery area
The outer monastery area includes all buildings on Klosterstrasse that were within the protective wall. The protective wall separated the entire Limmat Peninsula from the Wettinger Feld.
The sister house, for which the name «Weiberhaus» has been handed down, is the only historical building to be preserved in the area of the monastery gate. The two gatehouses that were northwest of it have disappeared. During the time of the monastery, the place in between was the place where the sacred and secular areas met. After the abolition of the monastery, the sister house was converted into the Gasthaus zum Sternen .
The former rope factory (with the wine cellar in the basement), also known as the nave, together with the sister house, forms the distinctive architectural barrier between the former monastery and the community of Wettingen. The 70-meter-long building now houses the biology and chemistry rooms as well as the preparatory and practical rooms of the cantonal school. After the abolition of the monastery, it was heavily modified in order to meet the new purpose.
The former bakery follows the long building to the south-east along the same axis. Karl Rothpletz converted it into an apartment in 1884. Where the Zwyssighof, which is open on several sides, is today, the now demolished servants' house used to be. The farm got its name from Father Alberich Zwyssig , whose monument it encloses. The bronze sculpture created in 1954 by the sculptor Eduard Spörri shows the figure of an angel.
The former monastery mill on the Limmat was replaced by the Wettingen spinning mill in the 19th century .
The grounds of the monastery included the gardens on the south side up to the Limmat and the wooden bridge that the bridge builder Hans Ulrich Grubenmann built in 1764 on behalf of the abbot. This river crossing was destroyed by French troops in 1799 and was only replaced by a new building in 1819, of which the larger of the two bays is still preserved ( Wettingen-Neuenhof wooden bridge ).
photos
Monastery church, view from the east
altar
Ceiling fresco and organ
tower
Cloister
Wettinger baby Jesus
Monastery garden and park
View from the southeast
Stars
Habsburg sarcophagus in the aisle of the church
Wettingen Monastery around 1838
literature
- Anton Kottmann: Wettingen (monastery). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Peter Hoegger: The former Cistercian monastery Wettingen. Swiss Art Guide GSK, Volume 604/605. Bern 1997, ISBN 3-85782-604-5 .
- Peter Hoegger: The former Cistercian monastery Wettingen. The Art Monuments of the Canton of Aargau Volume VIII, The District of Baden, III. Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1998 (Art Monuments of Switzerland, Volume 92). ISBN 3-909164-65-X .
- Peter Hoegger: Glass painting in the canton of Aargau. Wettingen Monastery. Canton Aargau, 2002, ISBN 3-906738-34-5 .
- Marianna Bucko: The Wettinger Jesuskind - The radiant morning star in the Maria Meerstern monastery. An introduction to the religious interior of the Maris Stella Monastery with the preface by Abbot Dr. Kassian Lauterer OCist . Wettingen 2007.
- Charlotte Bretscher-Gisiger, Rudolf Gamper: Catalog of the medieval manuscripts of the Wettingen monastery. Dietikon / Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85951-271-9 .
- J. Alzog: Conrad Burger's rice booklet (Itinerarium or Raisbüchlein of Father Conrad Burger, conventual of the Cistercian monastery Thennenbach and confessor in the women's monastery Wonnenthal 1641–1678). On the history of the Tennenbach Monastery in the Thirty Years War. Reprint from 1870/1871. Freiburg Echo Verlag, ISBN 3-86028-074-0 . (The original is in the armarium of the Cistercian monastery Wettingen-Mehrerau, reprint from the Freiburg Diocesan Archive Volume 5/6 1870/71.)
Web links
- Heinrich Murer : Chronicle of the Wettingen Monastery, Thurgau Cantonal Library Y 115 digitized .
- Friends of the Wettingen Monastery
- Website of the Christian Catholic Church Baden / Brugg / Wettingen
- Website of the Roman Catholic Church Wettingen
- Wettingen Cantonal School
- Wettinger baby Jesus
- Wettingen-Mehrerau Cistercian Abbey
- Kloster Wettingen in conservation inventory of the canton of Aargau
Individual evidence
- ^ Chronicle of Wettingen Monastery. Ittingen 1631. Frauenfeld, Thurgau Cantonal Library , Y 115.
Existing monasteries: Fahr | Hermetschwil
Former monasteries: Aarau | Canons of Baden | Canon monastery Rheinfelden | Capuchin monastery Baden | Klösterli Baden | Bremgarten | Gnadenthal | Klingnau | Königsfelden | Laufenburg | Muri | Olsberg | Capuchin monastery Rheinfelden | Wettingen | Wislikofen | Zofingen