Nonnberg Collegiate Church
The Roman Catholic monastery church of the Nonnberg Abbey is visible from afar on the Nonnberg and thus on the edge of Salzburg's old town.
The church is part of the listed building as a whole, Stift Nonnberg, and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Historic Center of the City of Salzburg .
history
During excavations in 1934, finds from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD were made east of the church apse. The first monastery church burned in 1006. The new construction of the Mariae Himmelfahrt church was completed in 1009 with the help of Heinrich II . The new crypt was consecrated in 1043. In 1423 the church burned down again together with the monastery. The new building that followed retained the shape of the old church floor plan. In 1448 the little St. John's chapel was first completed above the inner archway of the monastery. The construction of the crypt and choir began in 1463, and these were consecrated in 1475. The nave was built under the direction of master Hans and Wolfgang Wieser and inaugurated in 1499. The central nave was newly vaulted in the years 1506–1507. Early Baroque chapels were added to the south of the right aisle in 1624. In 1711, under Sebastian Stumpfegger, the church tower was raised and redesigned.
The external image of the church
The Mariae Himmelfahrt monastery church is a three-aisled late Gothic basilica with a late Gothic crypt and a Romanesque tower in the west. A high gable roof completes the church. The side aisles are covered by a pent roof, into which the side chapels are included in the south and a monastery wing in the north. The central choir and the side choirs are the same height as the central nave of the church.
Construction is only free in the south and east. There are tall Gothic church windows in the choir, three ogival windows in the main apse and two in the side apse. In the south above the chapels and in the north above the monastery wing there are pointed arched slug-glass windows. The church tower in the west behind the nuns' choir adjoins the cloister of the monastery and is integrated by this at ground level. A small monastery cemetery surrounds the church to the south and east.
Exterior architecture
Steeple
The Romanesque tower dates from the first half of the 12th century. The tower was raised in 1711 by Sebastian Stumpfegger and provided with an onion attachment. The tower is divided into two floors by cleaning bottles. The round-arched double windows there were only installed in the late 19th century.
South portal
The southern entrance porch was built in the years 1497–1499 and is vaulted with late Gothic braided net ribs. The late Gothic pointed arch portal has typical throat and column parts. Statues (or today copies of them) stand on four octagonal pillars: Emperor Heinrich II. , Mary with the baby Jesus and the saints Rupert and Erentrudis . In the tympanum , two parts of the previous Romanesque portal (made around 1200) were inserted, a tendril relief band and in a round arch relief the enthroned Mary with child, on one side with Saints John and Erentrudis, on the other with angels and the donor (depicted as praying nun) is surrounded. On small consoles in the Gothic portal frame there are sculptures of the Annunciation Angel and St. Mary.
Interior design
Lay church
The three-aisled part of the church is supported by four mighty, free-standing bundles of pillars, which are connected to one another at the sides by high pointed arches. Above it leads a walkway closed off with a late Gothic tracery parapet and behind it in the tall nave, pointed arched arcade windows with slotted glass panes. The roof is supported by a late Gothic vault with net ribs. On the west wall of the lay church in the north aisle there is a late Gothic portal with fluted side parts and a straight lintel. The four wooden reliefs on the door there from 1883 show St. Rupert, St. Erentrudis with Regintrudis, Erentrudis grasping the monastery veil and nuns in the cloister.
Frescoes in paradise
As the remainder of the Romanesque paradise in the previous building - built with considerable help from King Heinrich - twelve niches with images of saints have been preserved under the east wall of the nuns' choir from the middle of the 12th century, seven of which have been completely exposed, the rest of which are partially exposed. The busts there show holy popes, bishops and abbots as well as martyrs. They represent St. Augustine in the second niche , and St. Benedict in the fourth . These pictures are among the most artistically valuable Romanesque frescoes in Austria.
Nuns choir
The nuns' choir above Paradise is closed off towards the lay church with four pointed arched windows richly decorated with keel arches , pinnacles and tracery . The once central figures on the consoles of the lay church there are now in safekeeping in the monastery. Behind the middle section of the console is - not visible from the lay church - in the nuns' choir a small altar. Today's glazing, which extends to the top of the vault, dates from 1955. The frescoes in the ribbed vault there, which Matthäus Ostendorfer created in 1625, are shadowy behind the glazing.
Stained glass window of the apse
The central stained glass window of the main apse, largely hidden behind the main altar, is the only surviving Gothic stained glass window in the church. It was donated in 1473 by the later Salzburg mayor Augustin Clanner and made by the Strasbourg glass painter Peter Hemmel von Andlau . Pictured here from bottom to top are: Saints Peter and James the Elder with the founder Augustin Clanner, the Annunciation and Visitation of Mary, the birth of Christ, the circumcision of Christ, the adoration of the three kings and the coronation of Mary. Angels can be seen in the upper tracery.
The left neo-Gothic apse glass window from 1890 shows the founder Riccabona zu Reichenfels, four holy bishops, Christ among the scribes, the teaching Christ, Christ and the adulteress, the baptism of Christ and the Ascension and Resurrection.
The right neo-Gothic stained glass window, also from 1890, shows the founder Reichlin von Neidegg, St. Anna and Regintrudis with the kneeling founder, followed by Rupert and Erentrudis, the flight to Egypt, Christ carrying the cross, the three Marys at the tomb of Jesus , the Temple Walk, Assumption of the Virgin and the Marriage of St. Mary.
The choir window in the north shows the holy King Heinrich, the one in the south shows the holy Kunigunde and the abbess Maria Anna Scherer, the founder of the window.
Altars
High altar
In 1853 the main altar of Nonnberg, the altar created by Hans Waldburger in 1628, was exchanged for the Gothic winged altar of the pilgrimage church St. Ulrich in Scheffau am Tennengebirge .
This late Gothic winged altar has been in Nonnberg Monastery ever since. It was created by the Hallstadt master around 1515 . In the middle of the altar, since the move in 1460, St. Mary and Child has been carved in place of the former St. Ulrich. On the side are the saints Rupert and Virgil, in the small niches of the dividing struts are the saints Laurentius and Stephanus and two other saints. In the carved reliefs of the left open side wing, Christ on the Mount of Olives and his flagellation is shown, in the right wing the capture and the crowning of thorns of Christ.
According to Albrecht Dürer's Passion, the “weekday side” of the altar (ie the winged altar fields in the closed position) shows the adoration of the shepherds, the circumcision of Christ, the offering in the temple and the flight to Egypt.
In the upper part of the altar the crucifixion group can be seen with two captors.
The back of the altar shows the Last Judgment. (The area is not generally accessible.) Behind the high altar you can see a small Roman ash box with a grave inscription.
The predella (the altar part in the middle under the winged altar paintings) shows paintings on the door wings after Dürer's life of the Virgin Mary with the Annunciation to Joachim and the encounter at the Golden Gate. The back of the predella shows Christ falling under the cross.
The two side altars
The structure of the side altars dates from the end of the 19th century, the central Pietà of the left side altar was made around 1415-20. The reliefs and paintings on the right side altar come from the Hallstadt master's workshop and were created in 1522. The high relief shows the mystical marriage of St. Catherine , the painting of the left wing outside Christ on the Mount of Olives and inside the scourging of Christ. The pictures on the right wing show the mockery on the inside and the crucifixion of Christ on the outside. In the center is the bust of St. Ursula of Cologne , created at the beginning of the 15th century, in front of the predella, and outside the seated figures of the bishops Ulrich von Augsburg and Valentin von Terni .
The three side chapels
The altar of the eastern side chapel was created in 1734 by Johann Baptist Tschiderer . In place of this chapel there was previously the burial place of the nuns. The cafeteria was made by Johann Högler , the wooden crucifix by Paul Mödlhammer . The picture of the seven refuges was designed by Peter Paul Perwanger in 1741 .
The marble altar of the middle chapel from 1746 shows Saint Joseph in the altar sheet, Maria von Wessobrunn in the upper picture and, as side figures on consoles, Saint Theresa and Gertraud. The image of the Lamentation of Christ is attributed to Arsenio Mascagni.
The western chapel has a stone altar that Josef Doppler created in 1746. The sculptural work comes from Lorenz Härmbler . The altarpiece by Petrus Antonius Lorenzoni depicts the death of St. Benedict. The closing grille there was created by Hans Georg Klein in 1625. This chapel used to be the burial place of the abbesses.
crypt
The crypt under the church choir was completed in 1471. Two exits lead from the lay church into this sacred space. The small late Gothic net rib vault there rests on 18 free-standing columns and 22 wall-mounted half-columns. Here are the rock grave of St. Erentrudis and the tomb of the blessed Regintrudis .
literature
- Lieselotte von Eltz-Hoffmann: The churches of Salzburg . Anton Pustet, Salzburg 1993, ISBN 3-7025-0308-0 .
- Bernd Euler, Ronald Gobiet, Horst Huber: Dehio Salzburg - City and Country . Anton Schroll, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7031-0599-2 .
Web links
- Website of the monastery
- Description of the monastery in salzburg-rundgang.at
- English information about the monastery
Coordinates: 47 ° 47 ′ 46 ″ N , 13 ° 3 ′ 6 ″ E