Himmelberg Castle

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Himmelberg Castle near Metten in Lower Bavaria served the abbots of the nearby Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael as a summer residence in the 18th century . Himmelberg Castle is located in the municipality of Offenberg .

history

Today's castle was built in 1757 by order of the Metten abbot Adalbert Tobiaschu according to the plans of lay brother and architect Albert Schöttl as a replacement for an older summer house. The eastern part of the building houses the two-story chapel. In the western part there are the utility rooms on the ground floor, above that on the first floor a large hall and a cabinet.

After secularization in Bavaria in 1803, the castle was assigned to the abbot of Metten, Cölestin Stöckl , as an apartment; For health reasons, however, he was soon allowed to return to the former abbey and to his familiar surroundings, where he stayed until his death in 1807. Himmelberg Castle came into the possession of Johann von Pronath along with other buildings of the Metten Monastery . The building was later bought back by the rebuilt monastery.

In the years from 1984 to 1985 the castle was completely renovated and restored. The ballroom of the castle is now used for concerts as part of the series of concerts in the Metten Monastery .

Castle chapel

The small castle chapel has rich furnishings from the Rococo period. The altar with the side figures of Saints Peter and Paul and the pulpit were created by the Passau sculptor Joseph Deutschmann , who also worked for the monastery in the churches of Rettenbach and Michaelsbuch . The altarpiece and the frescoes are by Martin Speer from Regensburg, who also painted the cloister's ballroom and supplied several altarpieces for the monastery church.

Ballroom

The ceiling of the ballroom has rich Rococo stucco work, which was created by a member of the Modler family (probably Johann Baptist Modler ). Stylistically, they are closely related to their work in the New Residence in Passau and in Aldersbach Monastery . The middle field shows St. Benedict, who is provided with bread in solitude by the monk Romanus from the nearby Subiaco monastery ; the devil tries to prevent this. The middle field is surrounded by depictions of the four seasons and the four elements.

literature

  • Georg Dehio - Handbook of German Art Monuments. Bayern II: Niederbayern , edited by Michael Brix , with contributions by Franz Bischoff, Gerhard Hackl and Volker Liedke, Munich / Berlin 1988, pp. 218–220.
  • The art monuments of Bavaria. Vol. 4,17: The art monuments of Lower Bavaria. City and district office Deggendorf , edited by Karl Gröber, Munich 1982 (unchanged. Reprint of the Munich edition 1927), pp. 120–125.

Web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '28.7 "  N , 12 ° 53' 59.3"  E