Hohenburg Abbey

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Reception building of the monastery complex
Cloister courtyard
Kreuzkapelle
Exterior of the church

The Convent High Castle is located on the Mont Sainte-Odile (also St. Odilienberg, French Mont Sainte-Odile ) in Alsace , near the towns of Obernai and Barr ( Bas-Rhin region ) on the eastern edge of the Vosges mountains to a height of 763  m above the upper Rhine valley .

history

The monastery was built in the 7th century by Odilia , a daughter of the Franconian Duke Eticho , in Hohenburg, which her father had given her for this purpose. The place was used as a women's monastery until the Middle Ages and was later named after St. Odilia, the founder of the monastery and patron saint of Alsace.

A well-known abbess was Richlint. Richlint's successor, Herrad von Landsberg († 1195 ), who was trained by her, wrote the artistically valuable Christian encyclopedia Hortus Deliciarum there . Premonstratensian choristers continued to run the house after it had become orphaned over time and built it into a place of pilgrimage .

The construction of the convent church of Our Lady of Mount Odile , preserved today, began in 1687 on the foundations of the previous church and was completed after five years. In 1774 she received a marble altar and marble floor slabs. The church was founded in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI. raised to the minor basilica .

After the French Revolution with severe damage, the monastery was bought back in 1853 by the Bishop of Strasbourg Andreas Räß and the pilgrimage was revived. At first the monastery was taken over by Franciscan nuns , today a convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross lives there .

The Odilienberg is today the most important place of pilgrimage in Alsace. The monastery conducts church seminars and runs a hotel.

investment

Only a few remains of the Romanesque monastery complex built in the 12th century have survived. The monastery has been repeatedly destroyed over the centuries through various looting and forest fires. The surviving structures include the cross chapel on the cloister with a sturdy central column with a groin vault, and the tears and angels chapel, the last two of the chapels around the monastery. In the north wing of the cloister there is still a picture pillar from the 3rd quarter of the 12th century depicting the presentation of the deed of donation by Duke Eticho to St. Odilia (left), the consecration of the monastery by the abbesses Relindis and Herrad (right) and St. Bishop's Leodegar on the front.

sundial

sundial

The sundial was designed by the monks of the Cistercian Abbey in Neuburg in the 18th century. As a unique feature worldwide, it shows not only the local solar time, but also the Italian, Babylonian, ancient and the times of different regions of the world. The base of the clock installed in the abbey in 1935 contains the coat of arms of Monseigneur Ruch on one side and an inscription in Latin on the other, here in German: "You are walking forward as the shifting shadow indicates our hours. We are just Dust and shadow. " Including the date of relocation to the Odilienberg, 1935. On the reverse the origin of the sundial: "From the ruins of the Neuburg Abbey".

source

Below the monastery, a spring rises in a rock grotto, the origin of which is traced back to St. Odilie. According to legend, she struck the rock with her walking stick to help a leper who was lying there exhausted. The miracle source is said to have risen from the rock. The spring, the water of which is said to heal eye diseases, bears the name of St. Odilie.

Surroundings

From the terrace of the monastery and from the rocks on the southern edge of the Odilienberg there are distant views of the Upper Rhine lowlands and the heights of the Black Forest.

At the foot of the mountain are the ruins of the Niedermünster monastery, also founded by Odilia . The Truttenhausen Monastery also served as a hostel for pilgrims .

Photo gallery

  • Mural of the crucifixion of Jesus in the cloister

  • Sarcophagus of St. Odilia in the burial chapel

  • Station of the Cross

  • Mosaics in the chapel

  • Interior of the church

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Zedler: Hohenburg (monastery)  - sources and full texts
Commons : Mont Sainte-Odile  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual proof

  1. ^ Johann Andreas Silbermann: Description of Hohenburg or the Sanct-Odilienberg . 1835, p. 22 ( full text in Google book search).
  2. ^ Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Odile on gcatholic.org

Coordinates: 48 ° 26 '15.7 "  N , 7 ° 24' 17.9"  E