Parish church Leoben-St. Xaver
The Church of St. Xaver in Leoben is a former Jesuit church and today the Roman Catholic parish church of Leoben .
Jesuit church until 1773 - city parish church until today
Today's parish church of St. Franz Xaver (also known as Francisco de Xavier y Jassu) has towered over the old town of Leoben with its mighty structure for more than three centuries. Its magnificent interior has remained almost unchanged since the 17th century. The church was built from 1660 to 1665, no longer used after the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773 and declared the official parish church in 1811.
Construction of the new church began 47 years after the Leoben Jesuit College was founded. Extensive funds for this were donated by the Vordernberg cycling master Christoph Jantschitsch (died 1640). This building completed the settlement activity of the order in architectural terms. He put the crowning glory of the representation on the spiritual-religious, but also economic foundations, which had led to an enormous revitalization of the local culture in Leoben.
The fact that the building has been preserved in its original, early Baroque appearance with the furnishings at the same time may be due to the fact that its magnificent design and size prevented modernization both in the late Baroque and in the purist 19th century for financial reasons.
Foundation, equipment and activities of the Leoben Jesuit College
The establishment of the Leoben Jesuit branch goes back to the most prominent Styrian Habsburg and later Roman-German Emperor Ferdinand II , the son of Charles II of Inner Austria . Even before the court was relocated to Vienna in 1619, the Duke gave his Leoben city castle, the old sovereign property on the northwest corner of the medieval city complex, to the order. In addition to the actual castle, the remains of which are now the museum of the city of Leoben, the old Johanniskirche with its benefits and real estate on today's Josefee (district of Leoben) was also handed over.
On December 10, 1613, two religious priests and two assistants came to Leoben from the Jesuit college in Graz and took up quarters here. A year earlier, the order had first appeared here with preachers. Monetary donations from the Admont abbot Johann von Hoffmann (10,000 guilders) and the court master Archduke Ferdinand, Baltasar von Schrottenbach (3000 guilders) enabled the adaptation and establishment of the new college, the number of which grew rapidly.
The builder of the Johanniskirche was the ministerial family of the Timmersdorfer , who, as sovereign knights, also lived in the Duke's northwestern city castle, which later became the college. Against the bitter resistance of the citizens, the handover of the small, Gothic, now defunct sacred building, which once stood on the site of today's parish church and the rectory on the church square, took place.
At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, the St. John's Church was also temporarily the seat of an evangelical preacher . Its takeover by the Jesuits therefore also meant a late triumph over the teaching of Luther , who was attached to almost the entire citizenry until the violent re-Catholicization in 1599/1600. The handover also laid the foundation for long and bitter fights between the order and the city of Leoben, which would last for more than a century.
Shortly after it was founded, the Leoben Jesuit College began to play a role in the order's usual rotation policy. In contrast to the old orders, the Jesuits did not have any fixed location or lifelong ties to a monastery ( Stabilitas loci ) for their members.
Every Jesuit was ready at any time, according to his abilities and as the religious work required, to be called wherever his superiors wished. Even the rectors of the colleges were no exception. So there was a constant coming and going in the branches, which contributed significantly to the dissemination of ideas and knowledge and to intellectual mobility. In 1615 29 novices and fathers were transferred from Brno to Leoben and the position of the local college in the training of the next generation of the Order was strengthened. Until 1634 the novitiate for all of Austria was located here. Then it was moved to Vienna and a new task assigned to the location, which was also important for the young aspirants.
The efforts of the order to establish higher schools were of great importance for the spiritual and scientific development of the city and the surrounding area.
Up to now, school lessons in Leoben had only taken place on the basis of the schoolmasters paid by the city. In 1619 the Leoben Jesuits urged the emperor to set up a Latin school and enforced this against the will of the citizens, who had economic concerns.
St. Xavier as the city parish church
When, after the middle of the 13th century, the market settlement of Leoben was relocated and systematically rebuilt by Duke Ottokar II of Bohemia from the area under the Massenberg to the Murschleife and systematically rebuilt, the previous parish church of St. Jakob, first mentioned in 1188, remained outside the city .
It was not until the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773 that a remedy could be promised. Nevertheless, it took decades before the people's desire for a more conveniently located and spatially larger parish seat in the city was realized. Not only did the divine service have to be relocated, but also the accommodation of the clergy and service personnel in the vicinity of the church had to be taken care of. The Jesuit college and seminar buildings were not available for this because they had been converted into barracks after 1773.
Emperor Franz I of Austria was personally confronted with the grievances when he spent the night in Leoben on September 21, 1810 . With his permission, the parish church service was transferred to the former Jesuit church on November 18, 1810, which had not been used for a long time.
When the Dominican monastery in Leoben was dissolved in 1811 , its buildings were available for parish purposes and other purposes. The church of St. Florian on the northeastern Wehreck of the medieval city complex was profaned and transformed into a salt store . School and clergy were able to move into the now vacant monastery wing (today the old district court and prison). The rectory remained here until 1853. Then the stately rectory, which still exists today, was added to the north-east of the church and the old Jakobipfarrhof was demolished.
Church music in St. Xavier
In November 2004, Martin Österreicher, who was born in Trofaiach, took over the position of parish organist in St. Xaver, which resulted in some innovations. The large organ by Konrad Hopferwieser was built in 1899 as a pneumatic work in multiplex construction on 2 manuals. Just a few years after it was built, the instrument was in very poor condition due to the extremely complicated pneumatics. Countless renovations, conversions and expansions, partly by ignorant people, worsened the condition more and more. In 2000 it was so far that liturgical organ play was just possible, but artistic design was a long way off. This led to the discussion of a new building in the old, listed building. In order to be prepared for concert activities in the future, it was decided to build two new organs. On the one hand a compact choir organ in the altar area for small masses and concerts, on the other hand a large symphonic organ on the gallery .
The experienced Vorarlberg company Pflüger was commissioned with this project.
In 2006 the choir organ with 13 sounding stops on two manuals and 1063 pipes was inaugurated:
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
Shortly after the completion of the choir organ, the dismantling of the old work on the gallery began, so that at the end of 2009 the new symphonic organ with 36 stops on three manuals, glockenspiel with 39 bronze bowls and 2619 pipes could be consecrated:
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- Coupling: I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
The organ also has a free-standing console with a mechanical action mechanism, as well as mechanical and electrical double register action with 26 banks of 999 combinations each.
Organ lessons have been taking place in cooperation with the music and art school of the city of Leoben since 2005. In the summer of 2010, Martin Österreicher organized an organ concert series with well-known artists (including: Josef Hofer, Ernst Triebel , Gunther Rost and Emanuel Amtmann) for the first time; the same is also being planned for the summer of 2011.
literature
- Günther Jontes, Kurt Woisetschläger: City parish church St. Xaver . Club 41 Leoben
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 ′ 50.9 ″ N , 15 ° 5 ′ 33.1 ″ E