Schoenstatt (Vallendar)
Schoenstatt is a district of the city of Vallendar on the Rhine . This is where the Schoenstatt Movement of the same name originated in 1914 . Its spiritual and symbolic center is the Original Shrine , in the vicinity of which numerous institutions of the Schoenstatt Movement and the Pallottines are located.
history
The place was mentioned for the first time on October 22nd, 1143 by the Archbishop of Trier Albero von Montreuil as "eyne beautiful stat" in connection with the new establishment of an Augustinian convent . The monastery was settled by Augustinian women from the mother monastery in Lonnig and soon received extensive possessions. A late Romanesque basilica with the patronage of Our Lady was built as a monastery church . The cemetery chapel of the monastery, consecrated to Archangel Michael , today's Original Shrine , was first mentioned in 1319. Apart from that and a tower of the monastery church, only a few buildings of the medieval monastery are preserved today.
After the monastery had declined economically and morally in the middle of the 15th century, Archbishop Johann von Trier moved the Augustinian convent Ehrenbreitstein to Schoenstatt in 1487 and made it subordinate to the reform monastery Niederwerth . But already in 1567 the monastery in Schoenstatt was closed.
During the Thirty Years' War the monastery complex was looted and largely destroyed in 1633, and the cemetery chapel was rebuilt in 1681.
In the second half of the 17th century, the Kurtrier administration partially rebuilt the convent buildings and used them for profane purposes. Among other things, there was a faience factory . After the end of the Old Empire in 1803 and the fall of Kurtrier, the site lay fallow for almost a century. Only the two west towers of the church remained, which were secured in 1885 and 1898–1903. Apparently this was not enough, however, because on March 21, 1932 the southwest tower collapsed, the northwest tower has been preserved to this day.
In 1901 the Pallottines acquired the former monastery grounds and moved part of their mission school from Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein to Schoenstatt. In 1908–1912 they built a student residence above the existing facilities , from which today's Philosophical-Theological University Vallendar emerged . In this, Father Josef Kentenich was spiritual from 1912-1919 and initially founded a Marian Congregation , from which the Schoenstatt Movement emerged from 1914 , the spiritual and symbolic center of which was the former cemetery chapel.
Facilities
The Original Shrine, the founding place of the Schoenstatt Movement, is a recognized Marian pilgrimage site and attracts pilgrims from all over the world to pilgrimages, days of reflection, seminars and other religious events.
A pilgrim church was built in 1999 by the Ratinger architect Anton Alshut . The tent-like rotunda with a curved roof structure offers space for over 1,300 worshipers.
The Federal Home (also known as the Pallotti House ) was built in 1928 in order to be able to hold retreats and conferences there.
The Marienau in 1950 acquired for the Schoenstatt priests. The house was originally built in 1819 as a drapery on the site of the former Augustinian monastery, served as a seminary for teachers from 1887 to 1920 and has since housed the Provincial Office of the Steyl Missionary Sisters. Since 1980 it has served as the center of the Schoenstatt Priests Association .
Mount Schoenstatt
On the Schoenstatt Mountain , a hill above the pilgrimage site with the original shrine, numerous educational institutions have been built.
Two architecturally outstanding buildings on the Schoenstätter Berg are the Adoration Church (1968), in which Father Kentenich is buried, and the Pater Kentenich House (1985), designed as a museum, both of which were designed by Alexander Freiherr von Branca . An avenue of poplar trees, reminiscent of an Italian cypress avenue, lies between the two buildings. The church is a solid concrete structure, which is given a fortress-like character due to its natural stone facing and symbolizes a fortress of God.
The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary have their headquarters on Mount Schoenstatt, which was moved here from the valley in the early 1950s. In addition to the mother house, they maintain the training home, the novitiate house , the mission center and the worship house. The Marienland educational institution houses the headquarters of the Schoenstatt women's communities.
Mount Moriah
The Mount Moriah Priest's House was built in 1980 and houses the international center of the Schoenstatt Institute of Diocesan Priests . The altar that stood in the chapel of the priests' block in the Dachau concentration camp is now in its chapel .
Mount Sion
On Mount Sion there are branches of the Schoenstatt Fathers . In 1974 the provincial house with novitiate was built there, and in 1980 the worship house. The seat of the Generalate is in the father's house, which was completed in 1992.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans Erich Kubach u. A .: The art monuments of the Koblenz district. Düsseldorf 1944, pp. 378-379.
- ↑ a b c d e Joachim Schmiedl: Schoenstatt, place . In: Hubertus Brantzen (Ed.): Schoenstatt Lexicon: Facts - Ideas - Life . 2nd unchanged edition. Patris-Verlag, Vallendar 2002, ISBN 3-87620-195-0 ( moriah.de ).
literature
- Joachim Schmiedl: Schoenstatt, place . In: Hubertus Brantzen (Ed.): Schoenstatt Lexicon: Facts - Ideas - Life . 2nd unchanged edition. Patris-Verlag, Vallendar 2002, ISBN 3-87620-195-0 ( moriah.de ).
Web links
- On the history of Schoenstatt ( Memento from March 29, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
- Schoenstatt Pilgrimage Center
Coordinates: 50 ° 24 ' N , 7 ° 38' E