Vierbergauf
The Vierbergelauf is a pilgrimage, first described around 1500, over the Magdalensberg , Ulrichsberg , Veitsberg and Lorenziberg around Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia . It takes place on "Three Nails Friday" (named after the three nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross), the second Friday after Easter . The 50 km long route, which begins with a meal on the Magdalensberg, is covered within 17 hours, with up to 2500 meters of altitude to be overcome depending on the starting point.
Thousands of participants from all over Carinthia, from other federal states and neighboring countries now take part in this traditional pilgrimage every year.
history
Origin theories
Historians put the origin of the Vierberglauf sometimes in the Middle Ages, sometimes in prehistoric times, but mostly in ancient times:
- Franz Franzisci described the Vierberglauf in 1879 as a pilgrimage to the veneration of the instruments of Christ's passion , which probably dates from the time of the Crusades .
- According to Georg Graber's theory from 1912, the custom is part of a widespread mountain cult that goes back to a Celtic sun cult.
- In 1927, Ernst Klebel was of the opinion that the introduction of the Three-Nailed Day as a public holiday in 1353 was the starting point for the pilgrimage and that it took its final form in the time of Emperor Friedrich III. (1452-93), along the lines of cheering drain pilgrimage in Rome, took place.
- After Rudolf Egger was able to prove a Celtic sanctuary after excavations on Ulrichsberg, he suggested in 1948 that four Celtic tribes each owned a holy mountain and that an annual visit to these mountains as an expression of their political union would be conceivable.
- In 1952 Josip Šašel emphasized the importance of the Slovenes as cultivators of tradition. In a modification of Rudolf Egger's thesis, the Vierbergelauf was initially a concentric run of several processions towards the Magdalensberg. Based on a Slovene legend, he related the run to a procession that originally took place before the spring sacking to the "Mater terrae".
- In 1957, Leopold Kretzenbacher emphasized the importance of the pilgrimage date on Dreinagel Friday for the largely Bambergian Carinthia in the late Middle Ages, without fundamentally denying cult continuity from Roman times.
To the Celtic theory
The theory of the formation of the Vierberglauf in Celtic-Roman times is based primarily on the ancient city on the Magdalensberg with a Mars-Latobius sanctuary (see also: Jüngling vom Magdalensberg ) and the cult site of Isis-Noreia on Ulrichsberg. A second Isis Noreia sanctuary was located below Hohenstein Castle near the village of Pulst. This is located exactly at the intersection of those lines that connect the Ulrichsberg with the Lorenziberg and the Veitsberg with the Magdalensberg.
In the theory of the four Celtic tribes, the Magdalensberg can be assigned to the Latobics and the Ulrichsberg to the Norics . No ancient finds are known from Vitus and Lorenziberg, so it must be doubted whether Celtic sanctuaries even existed here. As other possible members of the hypothetical tribal union, the Carnians and possibly the Helvetii would come into question. Although experts today reject the Celtic theory, it is still very widespread among the population. The main reason for this is that this supposedly pagan origin of the run was taught in elementary schools and Georg Graber's views in teaching circles were unassailable for a long time, since he was a state school inspector. This theory was also strengthened by Bertl Petreis' popular book "Millennia Draw With Us".
To the Middle Ages theory
The pagan sanctuaries on Magdalensberg and Ulrichsberg were destroyed after the Christianization of the Roman Empire and a church was built on Ulrichsberg, which soon fell victim to the Avar storms after 591. With that, Christianity practically died out in Carinthia until the missionary mission by Bishop Modestus in the middle of the eighth century.
Formation of the four-mountain run
In 1353 Pope Innocent VI. at the instigation of Emperor Karl IV. the "Solemnity of the Holy Lance including the cross nail" on the Friday after White Sunday .
The Holy Lance , in which a cross nail of Christ is incorporated, was part of the Roman-German imperial regalia . After the Hussite Wars , they were brought from Prague to Nuremberg in 1424 , where the Church of the Holy Spirit developed into a cult center for the holy lance. Nuremberg is under the influence of the diocese of Bamberg , whose cathedral treasure also has a holy nail. The three-nail day in Bamberg was the most important date for the worship of the holy nail. Bamberg owned important possessions in Carinthia since the 11th century, such as the area around Villach, especially south of the Drau, essential parts of the Gailtal, the Canal Valley, St.Leonhard, Wolfsberg, the bishopric of Griffen and property at Feldkirchen and Dietrichstein. The influence of Bamberg is shown by the introduction of St. Vitus, venerated in Bamberg Cathedral, as church patron in Carinthia, as well as the numerous Heinrich and Kunigunden churches and chapels consecrated to the founders of the Bamberg diocese . However, the fact that the run takes place outside the Bamberg possessions speaks against the influence of Bamberg on the development of the Vierberg run.
After the discovery of the cross and the three-nail day were already celebrated on Magdalensberg, the three-nail cult received special support from the relocation of the Gleismüller and Kaltenhauser families, mining entrepreneurs and merchants, from Nuremberg to St.Veit in the 15th century. Another important impulse probably came from Duke Friedrich of Carinthia, who was king in 1440 and emperor in 1452, and thus became the guardian of the imperial shrines. Friedrich was at least ten times in the ducal town of St. Vitus and was in closer contact with Hans Kaltenhauser the Younger, who in 1471 donated a now lost Man of Sorrows relief on the Magdalensberg and supported the building of the church on the Lorenziberg. The Gleismüller family acted as donors on Magdalensberg and in Zweikirchen.
As the first of the four mountain churches, the church on Magdalensberg is mentioned in a document in 1262 as the Helenenkirche, it was built by the Osterwitzerin of the time of the crusades . Saint Helena is said to have found the cross of Christ in Jerusalem , so the church has a splinter of the cross as a relic . In the sixties of the 15th century the church was rebuilt. A Sankt Lorenz church at Gauerstall first appears in documents in 1496, after a previous building could have existed as early as 1330. In this church, the three sacred nails were especially venerated. The oldest written evidence of the St. Vitus Church on Göseberg dates from 1580, but as early as 1500 there was mention of the mountain "Sacti Viti". Saint Vitus and Laurentius are the patron saints of the city of Saint Vitus. Therefore, the churches on Göseberg and Gauerstall can be traced back to municipal foundations. The earliest written mention of the church on Ulrichsberg comes from 1485; it should not have been built before the middle of the 15th century. The mountain, which was called "mons Carinthus", "Chernperch", or "Kernperg" in the Middle Ages, is called Ulrichsberg after 1500. Since Carinthia was affected by five Turkish invasions between 1473 and 1483 and the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus occupied parts of Carinthia between 1480 and 1490, the church was consecrated to St. Ulrich , who was involved in the battle on the Lechfeld in 955 , and thus the threat to the German Empire by which Hungarians helped finish. In 1490 there was also a plague of locusts in Carinthia. This time of need in the late 15th century was the trigger for arduous popular pilgrimages to recreate Christ's death on the cross.
In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed a Holy Year for the first time . Everyone who received the Sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion and visited the seven most important churches in one day was granted a forgiveness of sins. The seven churches were the Lateran Basilica , St. Peter's Basilica , St. Paul Outside the Walls , Santa Maria Maggiore , Santa Croce in Gerusalemme , St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, and San Sebastiano all Catacombe . Later, the number of churches to be visited was reduced to four and every 25th anniversary of the birth or death of Christ was declared a Holy Year. At first, this privilege only applied to Rome; In 1390 four jubilee churches each were designated in Munich, Prague and Magdeburg, and one could win indulgences by visiting them. The Popes Boniface IX. , Nicholas V and Sixtus IV also gave individual churches outside Rome the privilege of indulging in jubilation. It cannot be ruled out that Kaiser Friedrich wanted to obtain such an indulgence for Carinthia. In any case, Pope Alexander VI allowed. In 1500, Christians living far away from Rome were also able to carry out such an indulgence. It is therefore likely that a four-mountain run was carried out by 1500 at the latest.
Further history of the Vierberg run
The oldest written message about the Vierberglauf comes from the collectants of the Viennese canon Ladislaus Sunthaym and can be found under the preparatory work on a history of Styria and Carinthia. Since the church on Ulrichsberg is already mentioned in it, but the find of the young man from Magdalensberg is not, this document was probably written between 1485 and 1502, but certainly before April 23, 1510. This document reports that Carinthian women with bare feet on the day of Christ's nails on the cross, they walked in silence over the four mountains mentioned.
The next document about the pilgrimage comes from the year 1578 by Michael Gothard Christalnick, who worked for some time as a Protestant preacher in St. Veit and the surrounding area. In his “Historica Carinthiaca” he writes about the poor people who are still in the papacy, who walk on the four mountains of idols, go around the altars once, bow to them, run away again and believe that they are doing God a favor.
Since the Protestants rejected the Vierberglauf, it was promoted by the Catholic official church during the Counter Reformation. In 1592, the Gurk Cathedral Provost Karl Grimming took part in the pilgrimage with numerous clerics and officials.
In 1606 there is a report of a Protestant Ferdinand Kulmer zu Rosenbichel who attacked four mountain pilgrims on Magdalensberg.
In the Topographia Austriacarum (1679) the Vierberglauf is mentioned as follows:
“Is a rather cold country / because of that it has the wine brought out of the country of Steyer / Crain / and Friuli /. Has a lot of mountains / and is especially 4. the highest in the country / namely S. Ulrichsberg / S. Helenae / S. Veit / and S. Laurentzenberg; on which the common country folk runs every year / on the H. three nails day / (then they call the third Friday after Easter /) on one day / church trips; because of it you get sick a lot / that at times some even die. Then it’s a very long way / and / how many calculate it / should 12 German miles be. "
In the 17th century, as a special form of church punishment, people were obliged to take part in the Vierberglauf, including women who - unintentionally or not - had crushed their children in bed.
In the time of the Enlightenment , the three- nail Friday was abolished as a mandatory holiday in 1753 . Then in 1772 all pilgrimages that had to be absent overnight, with the exception of those to Maria Zell , were forbidden. Around 1783 the churches on Veits- and Lorenziberg and the church of St. Job in Wasei were closed. After a forbidden four-mountain pilgrimage was carried out in 1787, the churches on Magdalensberg and Ulrichsberg were abandoned.
In 1819 it was said: "A few years ago the pilgrimage was lost and at least in our times it will not return."
But from 1840 the pilgrimage flourished again relatively quickly. Since the mountain churches were profaned, the masses were moved to the local churches. An exception was the church on Magdalensberg, which was opened again in 1789 for a mass every year on Magdalentag. By 1839 the number of masses read rose to nine. The Lorenzberg Church, which until then served as a grain barn, was renovated and consecrated in 1849. The renewed consecration of the Vitusberg Church took place in 1885. Around 1909 even thought was given to rebuilding the Ulrichsbergkirche, which only became a ruin after a lightning strike in 1897.
During the time of National Socialism, the tradition of the Vierberglauf was preserved by the prayer leader Ferdinand Eicher. In 1945 only four women went with him in the traditional Metnitztal group.
After the Second World War, the character of the Vierberglauf changed significantly. The motorization allowed many participants to be driven by buses and cars almost to the summit of the Magdalensberg and picked up again below the Lorenziberg. This has shortened the route by almost 10 kilometers and no longer forms a closed circle. In addition to mainly religiously motivated pilgrims, more and more sporty hikers took part. The processional order with crossbearers and prayer leaders, which was maintained until the early 1970s, has been dissolved by the mass participation of the last decades. In the early 1970s, in addition to the traditional presentation crosses, other crosses were also taken along for the first time; since then the number of cross-bearers has risen to several dozen. While the religious pilgrims do not leave Magdalensberg until after mass at 1 a.m., the first ones start at 11 p.m. and while the fastest participants reach the Lorenziberg before 12 p.m., those who attend all masses and devotions arrive just before 4.30 p.m. .
Religious practice
Five masses and three devotions were celebrated during the four-mountain run:
- at 11 p.m. rosary prayer on the Magdalensberg ,
- at midnight mass on the Magdalensberg,
- at 4.00 a.m. Mass in Pörtschach am Berg ,
- at 7.00 a.m. field mass in front of the Karnberger Church with the bishop,
- at 8.00 a.m. mass in Zweikirchen ,
- at 11.00 a.m. mass in Liemberg ,
- at 1.45 p.m. prayer in Gradenegg
- at 3 p.m. prayer in Sörg
- at 4.30 p.m. final prayer in front of the church on Lorenziberg
There were 29 rosaries to be said during the run. The special "inclusion prayers", intercessions and litanies are more and more forgotten. For lack of knowledge, they are (almost) no longer prayed.
route
Most of the participants start the four-mountain run on Magdalensberg and finish it on Lorenziberg. You take the following route: Magdalensberg - Treffelsdorf - Meiselberg Castle - Prunnerkreuz - Zollfeld - Kadnig - Filialkirche and Schloss in Möderndorf - Pörtschach am Berg - Ulrichsberg - Karnberg - Eberndorf - Zweikirchen - Glantal - St. Leonhard - Kulm - Liemberg - Liemberg Castle - castle ruins Liemberg - Veitsberg - Gradenegg - Sörg - Reidenau - Fachau - Lorenziberg.
The Metnitztaler Group comes to the Magdalensberg via the following route: Pöckstein / Zwischenwässern - Maria Wolschart - St. Georgen Monastery - Niederosterwitz - St. Sebastian - Magdalensberg.
The Sörger Group takes the following route to the Magdalensberg and ends the pilgrimage again in Sörg: Sörg - Reidenau - Fachau - Lorenziberg - St. Veit - St, Donat - Magdalensberg.
The route of the pilgrimage has changed several times over the centuries: the route used to go from St. Leonhard via Gramilach and Mauer to Wasai and from there to Liemberg, while the pilgrimage today leads from St. Leonhard over the steep Kulm to Liemberg. Older sources indicate that the course of the corridor walk in earlier centuries led west of Zweikirchen via the Hardegg castle ruins , the Haidensee , Tauchendorf, Gramilach, Mauer and the Wasai church to Liemberg. Today Gradenegg is no longer visited by the majority of pilgrims, while prayer leaders and cross bearers still have the place on their way.
Customs within the four-mountain run
In the course of time, various customs have emerged as part of the four-mountain run.
Mountain vacation
The pilgrims collect various evergreen plants ( bear moss , boxwood , ivy , spruce , evergreen or juniper ) on the four mountains to hang up at home in the Herrgottswinkel or in the attic. Like the palm bush or the Corpus Christi green, protection from storms is expected from the mountain leave .
Grain exchange
According to Georg Graber, farmers are said to have sacrificed a fist full of grain on each of the four mountains in the second half of the 19th century and pocketed a fist full of earth for it. In Graber's time, there was only an exchange of grain that had been brought along for consecrated grain and only on the Magdalensberg and Lorenziberg. The consecrated seeds are mixed with the ordinary and sown. Today the grain exchange takes place on Ulrichsberg, in Zweikirchen and on Lorenziberg.
Catching up the pilgrims
In Zweikirchen, Sörg and on Lorenziberg the pastor and the altar boys approach the pilgrims and the crucifixes carried forward are crossed to greet them. The pastor sprinkles the Vierberger crosses adorned with green with holy water and then moves into the church at the head of the pilgrimage procession.
Others
The pilgrims give sweets to children sitting by the wayside. It is said that this custom did not arise until after the Second World War, but by the end of the 19th century children were already sitting on the way to Zweikirchen, waiting for the Vierberger there and receiving coins from them. In the churches of Karnberg and on Veitsberg pilgrims can ring wishing bells and it is customary to go around the churches three times.
Christian interpretation
In popular belief, the four mountains were associated with the judges or instruments of Christ's passion:
| mountain | Judge | Tool of suffering |
|---|---|---|
| Magdalensberg | Hannas | cross |
| Ulrichsberg | Caiaphas | Crown of thorns |
| Vitusberg | Herod | lance |
| Lorenziberg | Pilate | Three nails |
More pilgrimages in Carinthia
In addition to the four-mountain run, there are other multi-site pilgrimages in Carinthia on Dreinagel Friday:
- In Sankt Paul im Lavanttal : From the monastery via St. Georgen am Weinberg and the Josefsberg to the Johannisberg.
- In the Jauntal : From Linsaberg via Heiligenstatt to Heiligengrab.
On the night from Holy Saturday to Easter Monday, a pilgrimage takes place in the Rosental on four hills with a visit to a total of nine churches.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Franz Franzisci: Cultural studies on folk life, customs and traditions in Carinthia. In addition to an appendix: Fairy tales from Carinthia, Vienna 1879, pp. 44–48
- ↑ Georg Graber: The Vierberger. A contribution to the religious and cultural history of Carinthia. In Carinthia I 102 (1912), pp. 1-87.
- ^ Ernst Klebel: On the history of the parishes and church of Carinthia. In: Carinthia I 115 (1925), pp. 1-47; Carinthia I 116 (1926), pp. 1-63 and Carinthia I 117 (1927), pp. 81-144
- ^ Rudolf Egger: Karnburg and Maria Saal. In: Carinthia 136-138 (1948), 198-206
- ↑ Josip SASEL: Leteče procesije polju whether Gosposvetskem. (German summary: Ongoing processions on the Zollfelde) In. Slovenski Etnograf 5 (1952), pp. 143-159.
- ^ Leopold Kretzenbacher: Carinthian People's Memories of the Imperial Shrines. On the medieval pilgrimage date of “Dreinagelsfreitag” in Carinthia in Bamberg In: Carinthia I 147 (1957), pp. 803–828.
- ↑ Topographia Provinciarum Austriacarum, chap. 3, Hertzogthum Kärnten p. 53
- ^ Franz Sartori: The castle forts and knight castles of the Austrian monarchy . Volume 2. Brno 1819, p. 239. digital
literature
- Wilhelm Wadl: The four-mountain run. History - meaning - process . Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2003, ISBN 3-7084-0011-9 .
- Helge Gernt: Four Mountain Run . Present and history of a Carinthian custom . History Association for Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1973
- Vinzenz Jobst: Four Mountain Run . Athos-Wieser Verlag, ISBN 3-85129-410-6
- Mag.Matthias Kapeller: Holy Mountains Carinthia-Slovenia-Friuli, Press Office of the Diocese of Gurk, Klagenfurt, July 2006
- Bertl Petrei : Millennia move with us . Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 1986, ISBN 3-85366-488-1 .
- Anton Wieser: From the path over the holy mountains. Vierberg run in Carinthia . Self-published, ISBN 978-3-9500713-0-6 .
Web links
- Photo book: From the path over the sacred mountains
- Information about the Vierberg Run at www.kath-kirche-kaernten.at
- Article in the Carinthian Week about the four-mountain run
- The somewhat different four-mountain run between paganism and customs
- Brief historical outline of the four-mountain pilgrimage by Univ. Doz. Franz Glaser