Portenkirche (Fürstenzell)

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The remaining choir of the former Portenkirche Fürstenzell

The Portenkirche Fürstenzell is a church formerly belonging to the Fürstenzell monastery in Fürstenzell .

history

The origins of the Fürstenzeller Portenkirche St. Margaretha go back to the 13th century . It is a typical part of a high medieval monastery complex of the Cistercians in Eastern Bavaria. According to the strict original rules of the Cistercian order, women were only allowed to enter the monastery churches during the first eight days after the consecration. Therefore, in the old Cistercian monasteries, small chapels, called “port chapels”, were built right next to the gate through which one entered the monastery area, as they were located next to the “porta” - next to the gate - in which women, secular servants and Holy Mass was celebrated by the people of the area. There are still such port churches in neighboring Aldersbach and in Zwettl in Lower Austria .

The first abbot of Fürstenzell with the name Walther built the Portenkirche in 1274, the year the monastery was founded, and consecrated it to St. Margaratha. The choir of the Portenkirche was renewed around 1490 under Abbot Johannes Schletterer, whose grave slab made of red marble adorns the choir of the monastery church and received its towering polygonal shape. A view of the monastery by Michael Wening (1723) shows that this part towered over the nave considerably. Around 50 years after Wening's copperplate was published, the Portenkirche finally got its final shape. The building abbot Otto Prasser, who led the crook from 1761 to 1792 , had the Margaret Chapel completely redesigned, including parts of the Gothic wall architecture.

Fürstenzell Monastery on an engraving by Michael Wening (1723). The Portenkirche can be seen at the bottom left.

After the abolition of the monastery in 1803 ( secularization ), the Portenkirche was added to the list of objects put up for auction. The altars were sold and the church interior was used as a warehouse for billeted soldiers and later as a hay barn and cowshed. This sealed the fate of the former church. In the meantime, ownership of the building had passed from the parish to the Fürstenzell market. The latter sold the property in 1973 with the approval of the authorities to a businessman, who demolished the long house and had a new building built in its place with business premises and medical practices. For years, the Fürstenzell market and the FORUM CELLA PRINCIPUM e. V. to renovate the remains of the Portenkirche and to fill it with new life. The renovation work was completed in 2008. The forum, represented by Walter Berchtold, received the monument protection medal in 2009 for the work .

The building is a listed building .

Web links

Commons : Portenkirche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ W. Berchtold, J.-B. Haversath and A. Kapsner: Fürstenzell: Culture, people, nature. From the cloister courtyard to the market town . Ed .: Culture in the district of Passau. tape LXIII . Salzweg 2017.
2. ↑ A. Kapsner: The port church of Fürstenzell . Ed .: Culture in the district of Passau. tape XXXIII . Passau 2013.
3. ^ Forum Cella Principum e. V. Accessed January 11, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (ed.): Monument Protection Medal 2009 . Munich 2009, p. 9 ( online [PDF]).

Coordinates: 48 ° 31 '20.3 ​​"  N , 13 ° 19' 8.6"  E