Mariastein Castle

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Mariastein Castle

The Maria flintlock located in the village of Maria Stein in Kufstein district of Tyrol . Originally this castle was called Stayn ( Stain ), after the building of the Chapel of Mercy and the beginning of the pilgrimage to Mary in 1587, it was renamed Mariastein.

location

The castle and the pilgrimage church to Mariastein can be reached on the streets of Kufstein, Wörgl and Kirchbichl. The castle is located on the Angerberg terrace of Wörgl, about 150 m above the Lower Inn Valley . The high keep is shielded from the Inntal by a wooded ridge of the Angerberg and is only visible for a few moments from the railway line and the Inntal motorway, which pass by just under 2 kilometers away. The residential tower of the former castle is exposed on a rock. It is 42 m high, the wall thickness is 1.75 m, the tower can be climbed via 150 steps.

history

The fortified tower that still exists today was built around 1361 by the von Freundsberg family . The fact that the church and the image of grace are on the top floor of this building and can only be reached via 150 steps reveals the originally warlike purpose of the tower. In the North Tyrolean Unterland, the Knights of Freundsberg, who sat on their castle of the same name in Schwaz , played an important role in the High Middle Ages . The armed conflicts that broke out as a result of Ludwig von Brandenburg's marriage to Margarete Maultasch in 1356 had a particularly threatening effect on this area. So the Freundsbergers were forced to fortify their rich possessions in the Lower Inn Valley. At that time the most important road to Rosenheim led over the Angerberg past this castle. After the road was moved to the other bank of the Inn and the progress in the field of warfare, the fortification became meaningless, as the castle could no longer withstand the firearms developed in the 15th century. The now horizontal part of the building, the castle, dates from the 15th and 16th centuries as a residential wing.

Hans von Freundsberg sold the "castle on the Stayn" in 1379 to the Bavarian dukes ; As recently as 1445, the court clerk Thomas Wurm is documented as “nurse zum Stain” . In 1448 Duke Heinrich von Niederbayern sold the property to his caretaker Hans Ebbser, and the castle became Austrian. The Lords of Ebbs had the tower raised by two stories and donated a Madonna figure with the baby Jesus, today's Madonna of Mercy.

1558, the castle is owned by the trades Georg Ilsung from Augsburg. According to a legend, the so-called Marian miracle should have occurred at that time : Georg Ilsung wanted to bring the long venerated statue of the Virgin to Augsburg, but angels brought it back to the castle twice. After this miracle of Mary, Mariastein became a place of pilgrimage, especially in the 18th century.

In 1587 Georg Ilsung left the castle to his brother-in-law, Karl Schurff the Freiherr zu Schönwörth, chief steward and judge von Kufstein. With him a new period of construction finally began for the badly run down property. Together with his wife, Baroness Polyxena Closen-Freyberg von Hohenaschau, he redesigned the castle into a pilgrimage site that is still flourishing today . At the time of the Thirty Years War , six priests and two hermits were looking after the pilgrims. After the last of the Schurff (Baron Ferdinand, † September 16, 1688) the castle came to the Counts Stachelburg, who were related to them .

In 1747 the castle came to Simon Felix von Crosina, who in 1773 sold it to the last owners, Count Klotz from South Tyrol. The last of his tribe, Count Paris von Klotz zu Trient, sold the entire property in forest and fields in 1835, the lordship was fragmented, the tenants became owners and everything was turned into money. The strange legal views of the general representative of Count Klotz meant that the palace and pilgrimage church were left without a financial basis overnight. In addition, the expensive castle building was counted too highly as church property and the duty of patronage was simply shaken off. At that time they even began to tear down the buildings of the castle. We are grateful to the Archdiocese of Salzburg that they took over the castle and pilgrimage church in 1835, thus protecting them from the threat of destruction and saving them for future generations.

In the 20th century, Salzburg Archbishop Andreas Rohracher (1943–1969) deserves the credit of having taken on the rebuilding of the partially ruined complex after the war. Because neither the community nor the state or the parish saw themselves responsible for the rescue of Mariastein, which is directly subordinate to the archdiocese and is actively supported by it to this day. Incidentally, “Our Lady of Mariastein” has been entered in the land register as the “owner” since ancient times. The renovation work begun in 1956 under Archbishop Rohracher was not largely completed until 1994. The pilgrims, the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the State of Tyrol are now responsible for maintaining the castle and church.

Art history

Castle courtyard

Through the archway you enter the courtyard, which is lined with the chaplain building. The free altar, built in 1956 thanks to donations from the Mariastein community, the Tyrolean Passion Play Thiersee and many devout pilgrims, serves numerous pilgrimage services in summer, but also the late Sunday masses.

Candle chapel and armory

The basement of the tower with its late Gothic reticulated vault, the Pietà set up in the niche and the early baroque Madonna altar now serves as a candlestick chapel. On the mezzanine floor, the former armory, two interesting dioramas can be viewed: a Tyrolean nativity scene and a historical depiction of the pilgrimage history of Mariastein. A remarkable testimony to traditional popular piety is the Holy Sepulcher , which was originally in the parish church of Angath .

Knight hall

The former knight's hall is located on the floor above the candle chapel and the armory, but it is only accessible as part of a guided tour. After the regrettable decline of Mariastein at the beginning of the 19th century and the associated squandering of numerous art objects, the knight's hall now serves to store the few remaining art treasures. Unfortunately, the entire inventory of the armory was given to a farrier and cart smith for a ridiculous amount. Only four helmets and four pieces of armor have survived, which, however, went to various museums and exhibitions. But not everything was lost. Above all, there are two Renaissance silver candlesticks , donated in 1599, as well as the richly illuminated book of the Gospels , which was painted in 1602 . In addition, the life-size portraits of former lords of the castle , who were just saved from decay by the State Monuments Office, can be seen.

Mariastein around 1900

Pilgrimage

Beginnings

The original chapel was probably located on the lowest floor, completely carved out of the natural rock, the pointed arched room of which can be entered through an iron door. A kind of sacrament house probably reminds of the former church use. The Freundsberg brothers donated a weekly mass here on November 16, 1371. When the Ebbs family took over the castle in 1448, they immediately set about designing the top floor of the tower as a sacred space in place of the previously much too small chapel . There is no consecration certificate for this new chapel, but today, on September 8th, the birth of Mary is celebrated .

Development from the 16th to the 18th century

The exact start of the pilgrimage is uncertain. What is certain is that around 1540, due to the enormous number of pilgrims, the floor below the chapel, today's Kreuzkapelle, had the floor below the chapel converted into a second church service room.

With the generously designed extension of the residential wing, the lord of the castle also created space for the castle chaplain, who was employed in 1606 and who over the years were joined by up to four priests who were always available for the wishes of the pilgrims and for the worship service. In the first decade of the 18th century, these clergymen were members of the institute founded by Blessed Bartholomäus Holzhauser . Thanks to them the establishment of the Sacred Heart Brotherhood in Mariastein, which was founded on June 28, 1715 by Pope Clement XI. has been confirmed. The exemption of the Mariastein chapel and the independent pastoral care at the pilgrimage church were confirmed by the imperial court decree of January 14, 1791 .

Historical sources

Two sources of historically high value testify to life around the pilgrimage church in earlier times. One represents the old stock of votive tablets comprising around 200 pieces . The oldest depiction of a wonderful healing comes from the year 1608. The important Kufstein painter Hilarius Duvivier, a native of Paris, had made it with five others. They used to decorate the lower part of the staircase, but had to be taken into the knight's hall to protect them from theft and damage.

The answers to prayer recorded in the book of miracles that occurred before the image of grace convey an even more vivid picture . The only remaining volume - two disappeared in the 1930s - is in a publication. The reports from the period from 1678 to 1742 give an extremely realistic picture of the multiple needs and worries of the people of this time.

Architecture and equipment

A residential wing and a stair tower are connected to the castle tower. There is also a large and a small knight's hall ( prince's hall ) with beamed or coffered ceilings and a treasury with equipment and sculptures from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Two chapels are built on top of each other, of which the upper one is the Chapel of Grace of Our Lady of Mariastein and the lower one is the chapel of St. Cross . The originally Gothic Chapel of Mercy was built between 1682 and 1685, it has a Mercy Mother of God (around 1450) and a Rococo altar from the 18th century. The miraculous image is a lovely Gothic Madonna with the Infant Jesus, which an unknown master created from the Salzburg-Bavarian area. In the Heiligkreuzkapelle there is a so-called Prague Christkindl . A twelve-page parchment was also kept in the castle, which used to be used for a manuscript of St. Jerome was held. Count Paris von Cloz had the manuscript examined and it was identified as a codex in Glagolitic script and published in 1834 under the title "Glagolitia Clozianus".

Castle gate of Mariastein

The entrance portal shows the coat of arms of the Freundsberger and the Schurff. In the outer entrance area, two knight figures were painted on at the end of the 1950s.

The castle is now inhabited by clergymen. The castle museum and the pilgrimage church are open to the public. In the museum, the Tyrolean state insignia with an archducal hat and the scepter, donated by Prince Maximilian III. , kept. Between 1959 and 1966 the castle was thoroughly restored.

literature

Web links

Commons : Mariastein - Castle and church  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Mariastein • Tyrol . In: Christian art centers in Austria . 8th edition 2011. No. 40. Verlag St. Peter, Salzburg 1978, p. 2-16 .
  2. ^ Hannes Obermair : Bozen Süd - Bolzano Nord. Written form and documentary tradition of the city of Bozen up to 1500 . tape 2 . City of Bozen, Bozen 2008, ISBN 978-88-901870-1-8 , p. 93-94 , No. 1018 .
  3. ^ Georg Clam Martinic: Castles and palaces in Austria. 1991, pp. 401-402.
  4. ^ Johann Jakob Staffler : Tyrol and Vorarlberg: in 2 parts. Volume 2, issue 1. ( books.google.de ).
  5. ^ Homepage Mariastein Castle Museum .

Coordinates: 47 ° 31 '36.2 "  N , 12 ° 3' 11.9"  E