Wilhering Abbey
| Wilhering Abbey | |
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| location |
 Austria
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| Lies in the diocese | Linz |
| Coordinates: | 48 ° 19 '25.9 " N , 14 ° 11' 24.9" E |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
222 |
| founding year | 1146 , 1185 |
| Mother monastery | Rein Abbey , Ebrach Monastery |
| Primary Abbey | Morimond Monastery |
| Congregation | Austrian Cistercian Congregation |
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Daughter monasteries |
Engelszell Abbey (1293), Vyšší Brod Abbey (1259), Säusenstein Abbey (1336) |
The Wilhering ( lat. Abbatia BMV de Hilaria ) is incorporated in 1146 Cistercian Abbey in Wilhering in Upper Austria . The collegiate church, built from 1733 to 1751, is one of the most important Rococo buildings in the German-speaking world and is considered the most important Rococo sacred building in Austria . In addition to an important picture gallery, the abbey also houses the Wilhering Abbey High School, founded in 1895 .
history
In 1146 the monastery was founded by Ulrich and Kolo von Wilhering and it was settled by thirteen monks from the Styrian Rein monastery . When the end of the monastery threatened after less than 40 years , the general chapter of the Cistercian abbots , which met in Citeaux , decided to repopulate Wilhering from the Ebrach monastery located between Würzburg and Bamberg . In 1185 the monks from Ebrach took over the monastery and began under Abbot Otto II von Niest (1193-1201) in 1195 with the construction of a stone church and the convent building. Numerous donations, especially by the Counts of Schaunberg , soon brought considerable wealth. It then gained so much spiritual and economic strength that it was able to found several daughter monasteries . These were Hohenfurth Abbey around 1259, Engelszell Abbey in 1293 and Säusenstein Abbey in 1336.
During the Reformation , Abbot Erasmus Mayer, who had become Protestant, fled to Nuremberg after only 9 months in office in 1544, including the monastery treasury . From 1544 to 1545, Governor Balthasar von Presing administered the monastery. By 1583 the monastery was completely abandoned. In the course of the Counter-Reformation, the Benedictine monk Alexander a Lacu from Lugano became abbot in Wilhering in 1587 and successfully undertook the reform of monastic life.
In 1733 the monastery was almost completely destroyed by fire, but was magnificently rebuilt under Abbot Johann IV. Baptist Hinterhölzl. The Wilheringer Stiftsschule , in which young conventuals had been teaching elementary subjects since the 16th century, was expanded into a boys' choir . The Wilhering Abbey Parish was founded in 1784 under the pressure of the reforms of Emperor Joseph II . In the middle of the 18th century, Wilhering Abbey acquired the entire Kürnbergerwald and the associated hunting grounds from sovereign property.
In 1895 the choir boys' convent of the monastery was converted into a grammar school with boarding school under Abbot Theobald Grasböck .
Shortly after the " Anschluss of Austria " in March 1938, Abbot Gabriel Fazeny died . His friend, the officer Johann Blumenthal , occasionally visited the monastery even after Fazeny's death. In the summer of 1939, on the occasion of a visit, he said that he was a member of a resistance group that Father Gebhard Rath joined. In the spring of 1940 he began to build sub-groups of the Greater Austrian freedom movement in Upper Austria. The confreres Sylvester Birngruber , Stefan Plohberger , Amadeus Reisinger , Eduard Haiberger and Theoderich Hofstätter joined him and began to recruit sympathizers in their home parishes. The betrayal of the Gestapo spy Otto Hartmann , who was able to sneak into the group in Vienna, led to a wave of arrests by the Gestapo in the summer. Rath was arrested on July 26, 1940, and so were the other priests over the next few days. The exposure of the resistance group provided the National Socialist regime with the means to own the monastery and arrest Abbot Bernhard Burgstaller . He died in prison in 1941.
After the remaining brothers were expelled, Bessarabian German resettlers were housed in the monastery and the premises were used for training courses for the NSDAP . From 1943 the Technical University of Linz was housed here as a Reich University , but it had only a few students. 1942–1945 the monastery also functioned as a prisoner of war camp . At the end of the war, a hospital was set up here for a short time .
After the end of the war, the monks returned to Wilhering, whereupon the convent grew to over 60 monks. In 1955, a west wing was built to expand the grammar school, thus completing the monastery courtyard.
A Romanesque portal, parts of the Gothic cloister and two valuable graves are still preserved from the early days . The Stiftsgymnasium Wilhering , which has been preserved by the monastery, is currently attended by around 500 students. The monastery community now has 30 members.
Collegiate church
The Wilheringen Collegiate Church of the Assumption of Mary is one of the most important Rococo buildings in the German-speaking area . After the fire in 1733, it was rebuilt over the walls of the burned down church, a three-aisled basilica with a transept and a straight choir, and completed in 1751, according to plans by master mason Johann Haslinger.
inner space
The interior of the collegiate church, which is considered to be the “most outstanding rococo church in Austria”, was probably designed according to an overall plan by Johann Haslinger in collaboration with the imperial theater engineer Andreas Altomonte and Martino Altomonte .
In addition to the high altar, which shows the coronation of Mary by the Holy Trinity , all other altarpieces come from Martino Altomonte , the ceiling frescoes were made by his son Bartolomeo Altomonte . The main fresco, the Wilhering Holy Heaven , shows mostly saints who have a special relationship with Wilhering or the Cistercians . The colorful, plastic stucco on the vault of the nave was created by Franz Josef Holzinger . The choir and the transept were furnished by the Wessobrunn masters Johann Michael Feichtmayr and Johann Georg Üblhör . The numerous statues also come from the latter. The theme of the frescoes and altarpieces is the glorification of Mary in the Lauretanian litany . The victory of Saint Bernard over the Albigensians is depicted on the pulpit . The lay brothers Eugen Dunge and Johann Baptist Zell made the choir stalls.
To the north of the church is the Grundemann Chapel, the former student chapel of the collegiate high school , which is adorned with a ceiling fresco by Bartolomeo Altomonte .
On both sides of the entrance there are Gothic high graves of the Counts of Schaunberg . They both date from the 14th century. The Romanesque portal of the collegiate church is a remnant of its predecessor and dates from the early 13th century.
Organs
The large organ was originally created by Johann Ignaz Egedacher in 1741. In 1884 Leopold Breinbauer from Ottensheim rebuilt it to a large extent in the historical case , although in some cases it used historical pipe material from the previous organ . In 1981 the instrument was modified by the Upper Austrian Organ Builders and equipped with a third manual (= Rückpositiv ). Since then the instrument has 39 registers and two "cymbal stars" on three manuals and pedal .
In addition to the main organ, the collegiate church also houses the famous choir organ by Nikolaus Rummel, which is located opposite the pulpit. Anton Bruckner counted them among his favorite instruments. The choir organ was restored in 2016 by the Schweizer Orgelbau Kuhn . The restoration of the main organ with extensive restoration of the main and substation to the state of 1884 was completed in 2018 by the same company.
There is also a two-manual organ by Gregor Hradetzky in the Stiftsgymnasium .
The disposition of the main organ is as follows:
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Coupling : II / I, III / I, I / P, II / P, III / P
Collective presses: Piano, Mezzoforte, Forte, Fortissimo, Pleno Organo
Abbey Park
The Wilheringer Stiftspark presents itself as an unadulterated Biedermeier garden . It was created in its current form around 1840. Some trees are explicitly under nature protection , including a yew tree , which, according to both tradition and the judgment of experts, is as old as the pen itself, i.e. over 850 years old. Also noteworthy are the baroque pavilion in the center of the park and the palm house built in classicist Biedermeier architecture .
Art collection
In Prälaturtrakt an art gallery extends with an emphasis on Austrian Baroque painters such Martino Altomonte , Bartolomeo Altomonte , Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Martin Johann Schmid . In the former Meierhof there is an exhibition on the history of the monastery and the largest collection of works by the Austrian painter Fritz Fröhlich .
Abbey library and music archive
The monastery library has a historical book inventory (up to 1900) of around 40,000 volumes. 20,000 volumes date from the 20th century. There are also 150 medieval manuscripts and 220 incunabula . The monastery also houses an extensive music archive, which includes over 3500 music manuscripts and printed music from the end of the 17th century to the 20th century, historical theories such as schools of composition and instrumental teaching, periodicals such as Musica divina and Musica sacra and liturgica. In addition to the core inventory, numerous bequests from collegiate musicians also form an essential part of the music archive. This includes one of the largest special collections of organ music editions from all over Europe in Austria.
Abbey parish churches
- 1400 Gramastetten parish church
- 1624 Parish church Zwettl an der Rodl
- Parish church Oberneukirchen in the Mühlviertel
Abbots of Wilhering
Reinhold Dessl (born August 6, 1962 in Linz ) has been the 74th abbot of Wilhering Abbey since 2013 . Previously, he ran the pen as an administrator for a year . The PhD theologian and pastor of Gramastetten and Expositus of Eidenberg , Neußerling and Untergeng has been a member of the Wilhering Convention since 1980.
literature
- Rudolf Guby: The Cistercian Abbey Wilhering in Upper Austria (= Austrian art books , volume 4). Ed. Hölzel, Vienna 1920. ( digitized version ).
- Gabriel Weinberger: Wilhering. Abbey and Church , published by the Cistercian Abbey of Wilhering. Wilhering 1983.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinhold J. Dessl: Resistance Wiheringer Cistercians against National Socialism . In: Annual report Stiftsgymnasium Wilhering (2007/08) . No. 98 , 2008, p. 7–19 ( online on the monastery website (PDF; 266 kB)).
- ↑ Wilhering Cistercian Monastery >> Cistercian Monastery. In: stiftwilhering.at. Retrieved April 10, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c Monika Oberhammer: Pustets monastery guide . Verlag Anton Pustet, Salzburg / Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7025-0374-9 .
- ↑ a b c d Floridus Röhrig: Old pencils in Austria . Schrollverlag, Vienna / Munich 1966.
- ↑ Wilhering Cistercian Abbey >> Abbey Church. In: stiftwilhering.at. Retrieved May 2, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c orgelbau.ch. Retrieved June 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Information about the organ on organsite.nl (Dutch)
- ↑ Wilhering Cistercian Abbey >> Abbey Park. In: stiftwilhering.at. Retrieved May 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Wilhering Cistercian Abbey >> Music Archive. In: stiftwilhering.at. Retrieved May 2, 2016 .