St. Moriz Collegiate Church (Rottenburg)
Today's parish church Sankt Moriz in Rottenburg am Neckar was a pilgrimage church , burial place of the Counts of Hohenberg and a church of a collegiate monastery .
History of the pilgrimage
First there was a Mauritius chapel built around the middle of the 10th century in today's district of Ehingen.
According to the founding legend, "a great gentleman" is said to have " visited" St. Maurice in Valais in Switzerland and took away many medicinal objects . When he led them through the village of Ehingen am Neckar across from Rottenburg, the unreasonable animals stood still. In no way was it possible to advance her. Since the Lord saw this, he gave the sanctuary to the lords of the same place.
The historical core of the legend is the fact that St. Ulrich, Bishop of Augsburg , traveled to St. Maurice in 940 to fetch relics of St. Mauritius . Both St. Ulrich and the then lords of the village of Ehingen were members of the house of the Counts of Dillingen were. As a result, the Mauritius relics probably came to Ehingen. For these relics, a new church was built on the banks of the Neckar, which was not subordinate to the Ehingen parish church of St. Remigius, but was founded as a separate church for the local lords and soon developed into a pilgrimage church. To further promote this pilgrimage, from 1337 indulgences were granted to all believers who visited them on certain feast days and commemorative days of the church year.
Church building
The first chapel was rebuilt in 1209 by Count Burkhart II von Hohenberg († 1217). From this church building only an underground room of about 4.20 × 6.80 meters, which was discovered in 1973 under the choir of today's church, is preserved. The walls were decorated with well-preserved frescoes from the early 13th century. This inaccessible underground space probably served as a repository for the Mauritius relics.
The construction of today's church began around 1300 and was completed in 1323 to such an extent that a first altar of the nave could be equipped with a benefice . The oldest component is the choir, under which a crypt was built. It is located in the choir head under the choir altar and was used as a burial place for the Lords of Hohenberg. The first burial took place in 1308 on the occasion of the death of Ursula von Oettingen, second wife of Albrecht II von Hohenberg . This space was no longer used after the Hohenbergers died out and was filled in in the 15th or 16th century.
The completion of the interior of the collegiate church was slow. In 1361 Margarete von Nassau, widow of Rudolf II. Von Hohenberg, donated a sum of money to enlarge the choir windows. Other Hohenberg foundations for the choir and the organ are mentioned in 1364.
The painting with frescoes began probably from 1370, first in the choir and shortly after 1400 on the pillars of the nave. The large influx of pilgrims made it necessary to extend the nave by a yoke to the west. Today's west facade with a rose window was created . The tower was quickly built from the second floor by stonecutters from the Parler workshop and completed in 1433. The interior received the important fresco cycle on the Obergaden with its atlantic support figures.
The two-storey, late Gothic Ulrichskapelle on the north side of the choir was built between 1489 and 1492. It housed the monastery library on the upper floor. With this construction measure, the collegiate church was largely restored in its external form.
Major changes did not take place until 1700, when the monastery tried with modest means to give the church a baroque style. The Anna chapel was built on the south side of the choir on the site of the old sacristy. Between 1706 and 1709 the nave was also extensively redesigned. The aisle walls were removed and rebuilt with larger window openings on the old foundations and higher than before. The original basilica shape of the nave disappeared to the outside under a gable roof reaching down over the central and side aisles, the rose window was bricked up. Inside, a wooden, whitewashed barrel vault replaced the original flat ceiling and at the same time covered the light openings in the upper aisle. The aisles were given brick vaults and the floor was raised. This was an attempt to create a bright baroque room with the simplest means . The choir was not redesigned for financial reasons.
During a first renovation in 1906, the frescos on the columns were rediscovered and exposed. The interior was rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style. From 1969 to 1975 a comprehensive exterior and interior renovation took place, which fundamentally changed the appearance of the church again. The aim was to restore the Gothic character of the church and to remove the baroque and neo-Gothic elements. The Gothic basilica shape was restored by reducing the aisle height to its original size and the resulting reconstruction of the roof structure. The floor was lowered to its original level and the baroque vaults removed. By adding a flat ceiling, the cycle of frescoes on the Obergaden could be made visible again. Finally the rose window on the west facade was opened again. Since its Gothic tracery could not be reconstructed, it was redesigned in a modern form.
A bronze plaque was placed next to the main entrance in memory of Eugen Bolz , who was baptized in this church.
Furnishing
St. Moriz is home to a number of important works of art from all stylistic epochs from the Gothic to the present day. In 1909, the paintings that lay like a tapestry around the round pillars of the nave were discovered and uncovered.
These column frescoes were created between around 1400 and 1440. They do not result in a uniform pictorial program, since they were donated by different people and families.
Even more important in terms of art history is the cycle of frescoes on the Obergaden, which was probably created around 1440. Further frescoes from the period up to 1680 are in the choir and on the front wall of the left aisle. There are other frescoes in the choir: on the south wall of the choir there is a translation from around 1470 and opposite a renaissance depiction of St. Francis of Assisi around 1590. Behind the Gothic canteen of the high altar, a large crucifixion group was set up, which was probably made in Michel Erhart's workshop in Ulm at the end of the 15th century .
On the walls there are a number of epitaphs from the 13th to the 18th century, among which the three tombs of the donor family with larger-than-life depictions of Rudolf I von Hohenberg, Irmengard von Württemberg and Freising Bishop Albert II stand out. They are works by the Strasbourg sculptor Wölflin von Rufach († around 1355/60) and his workshop.
Two side altars by the Rottenburg sculptor family Amrein from the late 17th century have been preserved from the baroque furnishings. The center piece of the so-called Mount of Olives Altar is, however, a late Gothic carving from the Upper Rhine around 1520, which was integrated into the baroque altar structure.
Finally, in 1950, the original fountain column of the market fountain was installed here.
organ
An organ in St. Moriz was mentioned as early as 1364 , which at that time was still on the rood screen in front of the choir. After the rood screen was torn down in 1736, the organ was placed on the gallery above the main portal.
On September 25, 1976, the large main organ was consecrated by the Lindau organ builder Winfried Albiez († 1984) by Bishop Georg Moser and the then Moriz pastor Alfons Werner. The abrasive loading -instrument has 47 registers (about 3000 pipes ) on three manuals and pedal . The game actions are mechanical, the stop actions are electric.
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- Coupling : I / II, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P (also as super octave coupling)
- Playing aids: 6-fold mechanical typesetting system, a free pedal combination, register crescendo, pleno, storage (mixtures, tongues)
- annotation
- H = historical register (from the previous organ)
Chimes
In the tower of the St. Moriz Church there are still 5 bells that belong to the historical inventory. The "twelve bell" or Christ bell was cast in 1419 by an unknown master. It weighs 2,210 kg and has a diameter of 150 cm.
The "Elfeglock" or Marienglocke weighs 840 kg with a diameter of 110 cm. It was manufactured in 1659 by the Rosier bell foundry in Rottenburg. The “Neuneglock” or Mauritius bell with a weight of 425 kg and a diameter of 91 cm comes from this workshop.
The angel bell from 1683 also comes from the Rosier bell foundry. It has a weight of 170 kg and a diameter of 65 cm.
At 65 kg and 48.5 cm in diameter, the little parting bell is the smallest, but also the oldest. It is estimated that they were made in the 14th century.
After the nave was damaged in 1999, the bell cage and the historic bells were renovated between 2003 and 2005. In order to preserve the historical structure, two additional bells and a new bell cage were installed. The historic belfry was retained. The new bells, which were cast by the Bachert company in Karlsruhe, weigh 470 kg and 330 kg with a diameter of 900 mm and 800 mm. The smaller one was consecrated in honor of St. George, the larger one in honor of Eugen Bolz .
Ulrich's Chapel
The abbey library was originally located on the upper floor of the Ulrich chapel, the remains of which were handed over to the diocesan library after the secularization . Today there is a small monastery museum here, which contains large parts of the former monastery treasure. These include goldsmiths from Augsburg workshops, including a pompous monstrance by Johann Joachim Luz and a silver bust of St. Mauritius, made in 1727 by Franz Anton Bettle, and another silver bust of St. Nepomuk by Franz Christoph Mederle, which was donated by Provost Christoph Edelmann in 1730.
History of the Canon Monastery
The establishment of the Canons' Monastery of St. Moriz in Rottenburg-Ehingen is closely related to the creation of a hereditary burial place for the Counts of Hohenberg. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the counts succeeded in expanding their territory from the Swabian Alb to the upper Neckar. When Rottenburg was founded in 1280, a new center of the county was formed. Rudolf I von Hohenberg had today's church built, designated it as the burial place of his family and founded a canons' monastery at the church in 1330.
The direct cause was probably the death of his second wife Irmengard von Württemberg († 1329). The first burial took place here in 1308, when Ursula von Öttingen, the second wife of Count Albrecht II of Hohenberg († 1298), brother-in-law of King Rudolf I of Habsburg , was buried.
For better financial support, Count Hugo von Hohenberg incorporated the Remigius Church, the actual parish church of Ehingen, into the monastery in 1339 and also gave him farms in Hart and Rangendingen . In 1364 the monastery took full parish rights from St. Remigius.
The secular collegiate foundation comprised a college of twelve canons who had to choose the provost (praepositus) from among their ranks. There was no limit to the number of vicars or chaplains that the individual canons were allowed to appoint as representatives in the fulfillment of their religious duties, such as reading mass and administering the sacraments. However, the monastery of St. Moriz rarely achieved the full occupation of twelve canons in its history. The pastoral care in Ehingen was entrusted to the canons and they were obliged to pray together in the choir in fulfillment of the canonical prayer. An exam did not pass .
In accordance with its initial purpose as a collegiate and burial church, numerous members of the Hohenberg family were buried here in the 14th century. This function ended with the sale of the County of Hohenberg in 1381 to the family members of the Habsburgs. So St. Moriz came under the sovereignty of the House of Habsburg , which retained the right of presentation for the canons until the abolition of the monastery. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the monastery succeeded in significantly increasing its ownership and influence by obtaining patronage rights and the gradual incorporation of parishes such as Bietenhausen (1393), Kilchberg (1421), Remmingsheim (1420) and Spaichingen (1455) . In 1451 a preacher's own foundation was founded. The preacher also oversaw the library.
The monastery survived the Josephinian reform because it was involved in pastoral care, but then fell victim to secularization by the new sovereign after the county of Hohenberg was transferred to Württemberg in 1806 . The former collegiate church remained as a parish church and was used as a simultaneous church (Protestant and Catholic) until the Protestant church was built around 1860.
Important provosts
- The first provost named in 1330 is Magister Peregrinus Pilgrim, who was previously pastor in Sülchen . At that time the collegiate council comprised seven canons.
- Jakob Ruoff was provost from 1487 to 1497. He had studied in Paris in 1460/62 and had the Ulrich chapel and library built. 41 codices have been preserved from the former library and are now in the Rottenburg diocesan library .
- Melchior Zanger († 1603) served as provost from 1561 to 1602. He is considered a late humanist who, in addition to the classical ancient languages, had knowledge of Hebrew, Chaldean and Syriac. After the turmoil of the Reformation, Zanger helped the Tridentine reform to break through. The pen owes its renewed consolidation to him, the strengthening of its spiritual life and its external effect. Although he was called to Vienna as court preacher in 1568, he continued to be associated with the monastery as chairman. An epitaph in Greek and Latin has been preserved in St. Moriz.
- Johann Evangelist Weittenauer (1640–1703) was elected provost in 1687. He wrote valuable chronicles about the monastery and the history of Rottenburg as well as theological writings such as the "Well-Experienced Catechism".
literature
- Dieter Manz: Rottenburger Miniaturen Vol. 4, 2004, ISBN 3-89570-922-0
- Catholic rectory St. Moriz, Rottenburg-Ehingen (ed.), Dieter Manz, Wolfgang Urban : In the footsteps of St. Mauritius . On the occasion of the anniversary year “800 years St. Moriz Church” in Rottenburg-Ehingen. 1209-2009 . Rottenburg-Ehingen. Catholic parish office St. Moriz, Rottenburg am Neckar-Ehingen am Neckar 2009.
Individual evidence
Web links
- Collegiate foundation St. Moriz Rottenburg in the database of monasteries in Baden-Württemberg of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives
- The website of the parish of St. Moriz
- Pictures from the ST. Moriz - Rottenburg am Neckar Church (Ehingen)
Coordinates: 48 ° 28 '26.6 " N , 8 ° 56' 0.8" E