Swabian baroque corner

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The Swabian Baroque angle in the broad sense coincides approximately with the area in Bavarian Swabia , the Mittelschwaben is called. The area bears this name because it is characterized by the many large and small baroque churches , whose tower ends are usually in the shape of an onion dome .

Demarcation

The demarcation of the area called Swabian Baroque Corner is difficult because it is not clear. Often, in the narrower sense, only the Central Swabian district of Günzburg is referred to, sometimes - in a broader sense - also the entire Central Swabia and parts of the perennials to the east . If the borders of the former margraviate of Burgau and the spiritual territories that lay between the sub-areas of the margraviate are taken as the border of the Swabian Baroque angle , that roughly corresponds to today's districts of Günzburg and Neu-Ulm .

Conditions for building activity in the Baroque period in the Swabian Baroque Corner

There are several reasons for the presence of the many baroque churches in Central Swabia.

Probably the most important is that this area was heavily devastated and almost completely depopulated during the Thirty Years' War . As a result, after the resettlement, which originated primarily from Tyrol and Vorarlberg , a rebuilding or at least a fundamental renovation of the churches was necessary, which was carried out in the style of the time, i.e. the Baroque or Rococo .

The second reason is that the Reformation in the area between Iller and Lech, with a few exceptions, such as Burtenbach or Leipheim , could not prevail.

A third reason for the large number and magnificence of baroque buildings was the competition between the many different secular and ecclesiastical territories in what is today Bavarian Swabia. The most important secular territories were the Margraviate of Burgau and the areas ruled by the Fuggers , the most important ecclesiastical lordships were the monasteries Wettenhausen , Ursberg , Edelstetten and Roggenburg .

Baroque buildings in the Swabian Baroque angle

Early baroque phase

The first building work carried out in the Baroque style in Central Swabia, which took place before the beginning of the Thirty Years War, was the renovation of the tower of the monastery church and the convent building of Wettenhausen monastery. After the Thirty Years' War the first renovations were again commissioned by Wettenhausen Monastery. These conversions to the Wettenhaus monastery buildings were carried out by the Vorarlberg master Michael Thumb , as was the new construction of the convent building of the Edelstetten Monastery, which was carried out a little later . Further evidence from the early baroque period are the churches of Niederraunau and Kleinkötz , the steeple of the Ursberg monastery church and Jettingen Castle .

Phase of the mature baroque

The most important church buildings, which were built in the phase of the ripe Baroque, which lasted approximately from 1700 to 1750, are the monastery church of the Edelstetten monastery, the pilgrimage church of All Saints , the church in Hammerstetten ( Kammeltal municipality , it is called the little Wies because of its external shape) , the church of Deubach (city of Ichenhausen ), the parish church of St. Michael in Krumbach , the Frauenkirche in Günzburg and the convent building as well as the monastery church of the Roggenburg monastery . Among the secular buildings of this phase, the Niederraunau Castle should be mentioned in particular . In addition, some very beautiful parsonages, like the one in Winzer , were built during that time .

In contrast to the early baroque phase, when the buildings were carried out by external builders and craftsmen, most of the baroque buildings of this phase and the subsequent rococo phase were made by masters from Central Swabia or who had settled here. Examples of this are the master builders Simpert Kraemer and his son Johann Martin Kraemer from Edelstetten, Joseph Dossenberger from Wettenhausen, Johann Georg Hitzelberger from Ziemetshausen and Kaspar Radmiller from Thannhausen . Among the painters, Jakob Fröschle , who came from Krumbach, and Franz Martin Kuen , who came from Weißenhorn , should be emphasized.

Rococo phase

In this phase, in which the major construction projects at the monasteries were completed or almost finished, many of the small village and pilgrimage churches were built, which were often very splendid and of the highest quality by local builders. Outstanding works from this phase are the cruciform pilgrimage church Mindelzell , the pilgrimage church Maria Vesperbild or the churches in the villages of Deisenhausen , Balzhausen and Hochwang. In addition, the Harthausen Castle , the rectory in Großkötz , Billenhausen and Rettenbach , as well as the synagogue of Ichenhausen , which was preserved and restored in the 1980s, were built .

The Breitenthal Church and the Ursberg Monastery Library are already at the transition from Rococo to Early Classicism .

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