Raymund Anton von Strasoldo

Raymund Anton von Strasoldo, painting in Hirschberg Castle by Johann Michael Franz

Raymund Anton Graf von Strasoldo (born April 29, 1718 in Graz , Austria, † January 13, 1781 in Eichstätt ) was Bishop of the Eichstätt Diocese and Prince-Bishop of the Eichstätt Monastery .

Live and act

His parents were the kk chamberlain Johann Joseph Graf von Strasoldo (1680–1767), Uradel of the Margraviate of Friuli , and Anna Cäcilia (1690–1746) born. Countess of Gera zu Graz. As a child, the mother determined the count for the clerical status. From an early age he was shaped at the imperial court in Vienna.

In 1734 he became canon of Eichstätt and went to study theology at the Germanicum in Rome. After his return to Eichstätt, he became dean of the cathedral in 1751; as such, he made himself unpopular by forbidding young clerics from visiting inns and only allowing the canons to visit the Herrenkrankstube (today cathedral parish on P.-Philipp-Jeningen-Platz).

At the age of 39 he was elected Prince-Bishop of Eichstätt on July 5, 1757 - in the sixth ballot - by the Eichstätter cathedral chapter . In the middle of the Seven Years' War between Austria and Prussia, this election was a sign that Eichstätt, as before, was completely on the Austrian side. The prince-bishop had to recruit soldiers for a lot of money for the imperial army, which was defeated in the Battle of Roßbach in November 1761.

The prince-bishop enjoyed the deep veneration of his subjects and his diocesans for generosity. When the grain price rose sharply in 1771 due to poor harvests and there was famine, he had grain come from Holland, Italy and Saxony and sold it at half the price. In the following year disease swept the country; For two years the prince had the grain that was still in stock given to the poor and medicines distributed free of charge.

Prince Strasoldo was an important rococo builder for the bishopric. At Beilngries in 1760–64 he had an old Hirschberger count's castle transformed into a three- winged princely hunting lodge, a rococo jewel , and a three-and-a-half kilometer long road to the castle by his court building director Maurizio Pedetti . This is where he preferred to stay, and several contemporary pictures showing him are still hanging there today. In 1764 he had ten state roads built through his prince-bishopric, a total of 111 kilometers with a stone substructure and flanked by avenues of trees. In Eichstätt, under his rule in 1758, the orphanage was built, and in 1776/77 the 19-meter-high Marian column on Residenzplatz was built by Pedetti over a curved water basin; He is also responsible for the rococo interior fittings of the second floor of the residence , also executed by Pedetti in 1776 , the hall of mirrors in 1768/69 as an audience and ballroom and the adjoining rooms decorated with silk wallpaper, as well as the installation of the representative staircase. He also had the residence garden, especially the central pavilion, rebuilt by Pedetti. In the Hochstift his coat of arms can be found several times on buildings that his court building director erected, e.g. B. in Ornbau at the box office.

As bishop he published an edict for candidates for priesthood in 1759, an (administrative) generals in 1766 and a textbook for priests in 1768, the “Instructio pastoralis”, which was published in 1854, 1871, 1877 and 1902. However, he did not write the Instructio himself, but the Jesuit and professor of moral theology at the Collegium Willibaldinum Augustin Kraus . The visitations to the dean's offices in Eichstätt, Greding , Kipfenberg , Beilngries , Berching , Ellingen , Spalt , Ornbau and Bergen , which were carried out on behalf of the Prince-Bishop by Georg Richard Schildknecht , also served to eliminate any misuse that had crept in .

At the turn of the Enlightenment , Prince Strasoldo was also fond of science. For example, he had an instrument (physics) room built in Eichstätt in 1776 in the Collegium Willibaldinum, a “grammar school academicum” run by Jesuits. The prince-bishop was very fond of the Jesuits, who directed the college until the order was banned in 1773; he managed to keep the "ex-Jesuits" as professors at the Collegium Willibaldinum . For his support of the Jesuits, Count von Strasoldo was ridiculed by the Illuminati , his enlightened opponent also among the canons. He also supported the Studium generale of the Eichstatt Dominicans , while his relations with the University of Ingolstadt , of which he was Chancellor, were not very close.

He turned down the dignity of cardinal that had been offered to him several times , probably in order to be able to stay in Eichstätt.

The 65th successor of St. Willibald von Eichstätt on the episcopal chair of Eichstätt, plagued by gout and liver disease, was buried in the cathedral on January 30, 1781 . Pedetti created his grave monument in the southern area of ​​the cathedral in the classicism style .

Building inscription and coat of arms of Eichstätt Prince-Bishop Raymund Anton von Strasoldo in Hirschberg Castle, 1764

Coat of arms of the bishop

This has been preserved at the entrance to the episcopal hunting lodge Hirschberg. In field 1 it shows a black, gold-crowned, gold-armored and red-tongued double-headed eagle in field 1, in fields 2 and 3 in gold the bust of a Moor with a silver forehead band with fluttering ribbons and red earrings and in field 4 in gold six fan-shaped ostrich feathers, alternately black and silver. The heart shield shows a crosier in red.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Strassoldo, Raimund Anton Graf . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 39th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1879, p. 295 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Julius Sax: The bishops and imperial princes of Eichstätt 745–1806. Attempt to interpret their role and work. 2 volumes. Verlag Krüll, Landshut 1884/1885
• Alois Knöpfler :  Strassoldo, Raymund Anton Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 516-518.
• Bruno Lengenfelder:  Raimund Anton Graf von Strasoldo. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 117 ( digitized version ).
• Max Domarus: The Eichstätter bishops election of 1757. In: Collector sheet of the historical association Eichstätt. 58 (1943-60), Eichstätt 1961, pp. 113-117.
• Andreas Bauch: Raymund Anton von Strasoldo (1757/81). In: Collection sheet of the Historical Association Eichstätt. 65/66 (1972/73), pp. 26-28.
• Alfons Fleischmann: The Instructio Pastoralis Eystettensis. In: Collegium Willibaldinum. 1964, pp. 133-139.
• Carl Oskar Renner: Prince-Bishop Raymund Anton Strasoldo. In: Unknown Bavaria. Portraits from eight centuries. 8th edition. Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-7991-5839-1 , pp. 155-167.
• Bruno Lengenfelder: The Diocese of Eichstätt between Enlightenment and Restoration. Church and State 1773–1821. Pustet, Regensburg 1990.
• Klaus Kreitmeir: The bishops of Eichstätt. Verlag der Kirchenzeitung, Eichstätt 1992, p. 86 f.
• Peter Zürcher: The bishopric elections in the prince-bishopric of Eichstätt from 1636 to 1790. Election events in the mirror domkapitelscher, dynastic and imperial state and imperial church politics (series of publications on Bavarian state history. 155) (dissertation Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2004/2005). Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-10770-2 .

Web links

• Entry on Raymund Anton von Strasoldo on catholic-hierarchy.org
• Ancestral sample of Reimundus Antonius Graf von Strasoldo on monasterium.net
• Description of coat of arms with picture after Dr. Bernhard Peter

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Anton II of Freyberg	Bishop of Eichstätt 1757 - 1781	Johann Anton III. from Zehmen