Parish church Hofkirchen near Saxen
The parish church Hofkirchen bei Saxen was a church in the village of Hofkirchen in the market town of Saxen in the Perg district in Upper Austria . After the Roman Catholic parish was dissolved in 1784 by Emperor Josef II , the furnishings were transferred to the Klam parish and Saxen parish churches .
location
Hofkirchen is now one and a half kilometers from the Danube , but used to be on the bank of the then unregulated, branched river. On the hillside at the foot of the rising Bohemian granite massif , Hofkirchen has always been safe from flooding.
To the south of Hofkirchen was the Katzenstein, which, like the Jochenstein near Engelhartszell , the Kettenstein near Wilhering and the Strudengau downstream, was feared by shipmen. The Katzenstein (Chazze rock) is mentioned several times in documents from Clam Castle as the landing and loading point for the Klam market . At the beginning of the 20th century there was still the binder in the Katzenstein .
Patronage
Because of its location on the river, it made sense to dedicate the church to St. Nicholas as the patron saint of seafarers and shipmen. Hofkirchen thus joins a chain of Nikolauskirchen along the Danube:
- Sankt Nikola in Passau , where the Inn salt ships were dispatched. The place took its name from the Augustinian canons of St. Nikola (Passau) founded around 1070
- Nicholas monument at the Urfahr parish church
- Parish church Mauthausen , which was built around 1200
- St. Nikola on the Danube , where the shipmen had left the dangerous Strudengau behind and the hospital founded in 1141 stood
The former St. Nicholas Monastery in Passau
Nicholas monument at the Urfahr parish church (inscription in Latin and Russian)
Parish and Nikolauskirche Mauthausen
Saint Nikola on the Danube
history
The church in Hofkirchen may already be mentioned in the document Confirmatio Ludovici Pii , dated 823 , in which Emperor Ludwig the Pious left two churches in Saxen to the Bishop of Passau ( in Saxinum Basilicas duas ). In the then huge area of Saxens as one of the eight mother parishes of the Mühlviertel , the second church could also have been the Andreaskirche in Mitterkirchen or the baptistery in Arbing Castle .
It was first mentioned by name as "Hofkirchen" around 1230, when there was a dispute between the pastor of Saxen and the bailiff of St. Nikola Abbey over the limits and rights of the capella in Hofchirchen . Hofkirchen was the burial church of the Clam rule . Gradually, however, the branch and burial church developed into an independent parish church with corresponding characteristics. A church visitation took place in 1544, and by 1552 at the latest Hofkirchen also had its own pastor. Christoph Perger II. (Died 1581) had this year namely a dispute with the parish priest Johann chess, which then, the pen letters that were kept in a black, studded with iron chest in the sacristy to the competent Bishop Wolfgang von Salm to Passau brought and there sued Herr von Klam. In fiefdoms from Emperor Rudolf II from 1579, 1583 and 1605, Hofkirchen appears as a church fief from Clam.
Heyday
Wolfgang Christoph Perger, lord of Klam, had the church renovated and re-vaulted in 1584. As an ordinary parish at that time, Hofkirchen had a baptismal font and a sacrarium . While Catholic priests were active throughout the neighboring parish of Saxen , there were three Protestant preachers in Hofkirchen between 1581 and 1624 and Protestant schoolmasters from 1590 to 1624, who, however, left the place under the imperial decree of October 4, 1624 under the Bavarian governor Adam von Herberstorff had to. Michael Heinz, the last Protestant pastor of Hofkirchen, left Upper Austria for good in 1627 and got a job with the Duke of Württemberg .
In 1616 a new parsonage was set up in Hofkirchen, in which the pastors lived and the children were educated.
Johann Gottfried Perger (1598–1673), nephew of Wolfgang Christoph, is considered a great patron of Hofkirchen and Klam. On August 11, 1636 he was given by Emperor Ferdinand III. the title Noble Herr von Clam bestowed and from November 22, 1655 he was allowed to call himself Baron von Clam . In 1641 he had the Hofkirchen church plastered and its organ restored. He had a column of torture built from various stones that were lying around the church in the cemetery . He founded a hospital in Klam and wrote a chronicle. In 1659 he began building the parish church in Klam , initially as a branch church of Saxen. Due to the construction of the church in Klam, however, parish life shifted away from Hofkirchen, which increasingly lost its importance.
resolution
In a letter dated February 28, 1784, Emperor Josef II ordered that the church in Hofkirchen be closed. In 1792 a list of the inventory was drawn up. On it are among other things a silver chalice , a copper holy water basin , four candlesticks, a lamp and a censer made of brass , 6 chasubles in different colors (one green, blue, red and white chasuble and two black vestments). The two small church bells were brought to Klam in 1793. The dismantling of the interior furnishings began on May 2, 1798. The Klam carpenter Josef Hurn dismantled the altar, church chairs, floors and dismantled the organ that was transported to Klam. On May 29, 1798 a certain Johann Jagerbichler auctioned the roof truss for 17 guilders and 6 kreuzers .
church
construction
The church faced east. Including the apse and tower, it was eleven fathoms long and seven fathoms wide, so it measured 20 by 13 meters. The church tower was 8 fathoms (15 meters) high.
Organs
Wolfgang Christoph Perger bought the organ of the Linz country house on a return trip from the imperial court in Prague in 1591 , which had become too small for the purposes of the estates . After a few decades, however, the organists and schoolmasters complained that they “couldn't go on beating in the same fashion”. That is why Johann Gottfried Perger paid an organ builder Franz N. 80 guilders for an organ renovation in 1641 , which, however, failed. In order not to leave the church without an organ, Johann Gottfried bought a new work from master Mathias Rotenburger in Linz for 142 guilders in 1660 . After the church was closed, this organ was dismantled in 1798 and taken to the church in Klam, where it was, however, given in payment for a new organ a short time later.
Crypt
The Clamer's tomb was located in the immediate vicinity of the church. Some of those buried there are listed in a deed of foundation from 1661. There were also two valuable copper coffins in the crypt, one from Hans Enoch, Johann Gottfried's father, the other from a clamers who died as a cornet (officer) in the battle against the Turks. After the parish was dissolved, the copper coffins and a few other coffins were transferred to the crypt at the Marien Altar in the parish church of Saxen , where they still rest in this walled-up and therefore inaccessible room.
Today's tracks
The place of the former church tower is marked by a simple wooden cross between two mighty trees.
Hofkirchen No. 15 (Wahlmüller, Weber), located just above the cross, served as a sacristan's house . The schoolmasters lived in house number 14 (Strohhofer) below. The Strohhofer Mostkeller belonging to it was formerly the Clamer's crypt (popularly known as the Totenhäusl for a long time). In the cellar, however, there are no longer any traces of its original purpose as a crypt.
The house on the other (eastern) side of the ravine, which leads to the Reitberg, today has the address Hofkirchen 10 (Hansl) and was built in 1616 as a rectory.
Wooden cross on the site of the former church tower
The former crypt, above the former sacristy
Church floor plan
View from the former sacristy towards Saxen and Baumgartenberg (the former monastery is only visible as a small bright spot)
literature
- Richard Kastner: The former parish Hofkirchen near Saxen. On the story of a missing church. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Linz 1948, pp. 248-253 ( online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).
- Franz Achleitner: Small home book Saxen. Festschrift for the market survey celebration in 1981. Saxen 1981.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Christian Rohr: Life on and with the water in medieval Upper Austria in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
- ^ Friedrich Slezak: Saurüssel, Strudel and Wirbel. On the history of the navigation barriers at Grein. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. Linz 1970, p. 37 ( online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).
- ^ Benno Ulm : The Mühlviertel. His works of art, historical forms of life and settlement. In: Austrian art monograph. Volume V, Salzburg 1971, p. 20.
- ↑ difference letter Bishop Gebhard's about Passau between the pastor of Saxenkirchen and Mr. H. Ernest Inge because of Capelle in Hofkirchen . In: Upper Austrian document book . Volume 2, No. CCCCLXXXII, p. 690 (around 1230).
- ↑ Document: Upper Austrian document book, secular part (540-1399) 1230. Bishop Gebhard's arbitration letter of Passau between the pastor of Saxenkirchen and Mr. H. von Ernestinge because of the chapel in Hofkirchen in the European document archive Monasterium.net .
- ^ Pedigree of the Perger in Klam. In: patricus.info. Retrieved April 29, 2020 .
- ^ Georg Heilingsetzer : Patent of Emperor Ferdinand II, concerning the expulsion of the Protestant preachers and schoolmasters. Lender: Upper Austrian Provincial Archives (Linz, Upper Austria), Weinberger Archives, Volume 30/7. In: uni-klu.ac.at. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
- ↑ Eberhaud Krauss: Exulanten from the Upper Austrian Mühlviertel in Franconia (= sources and research on Franconian family history. Volume 23). Nuremberg 2010, p. 353.
- ↑ Pfarrchronik Saxen, p. 84 (the fathom is used as a measure of length = six shoes).
- ^ Richard Kastner: The organ at Hofkirchen near Saxen. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. Linz 1948, p. 158 ( online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at).
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '18.6 " N , 14 ° 48' 3.3" E