Wettingen-Mehrerau Territorial Abbey

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Wettingen-Mehrerau Territorial Abbey
Mehrerau Abbey - view from Gebhardsberg
Mehrerau Abbey - view from Gebhardsberg
location AustriaAustria Austria
Lies in the diocese exemte abbey
Coordinates: 47 ° 30 '13.3 "  N , 9 ° 43' 14.1"  E Coordinates: 47 ° 30 '13.3 "  N , 9 ° 43' 14.1"  E
Serial number
according to Janauschek 		598
Cistercian since 1227 (Wettingen); 1854 (Mehrerau)
Year of dissolution /
annulment 		1806 (Mehrerau OSB); 1841 (Wettingen OCist)
Year of repopulation 1854
Congregation Mehrerauer Congregation
Wettingen-Mehrerau Territorial Abbey
Basic data
Country Austria
Ecclesiastical province Immediate
Dept Vinzenz Wohlwend OCist
Dept. Emeritus Kassian Lauterer OCist , Anselm van der Linde OCist
founding 7th century
surface 1 km²
Residents 254 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 )
Catholics 205 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 )
proportion of 80.7%
Religious priest 20 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 )
Catholics per priest 10
Friars 34 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 )
Religious sisters 32 (December 31, 2015 / AP 2017 )
rite Cistercian and Roman rites
Liturgical language Latin and German
cathedral Mehrerau Abbey Church
address Mehrerau Monastery
A-6903 Bregenz
Austria
Website www.mehrerau.at

The Territorial Abbey Wettingen-Mehrerau ( Latin Abbatia territorialis Beatae Mariae Virginis de Maris Stella et de Augia Majore ) is a Cistercian monastery located near Bregenz ( Vorarlberg ). Due to the special position of Wettingen-Mehrerau as a territorial abbey , its abbot is a member of the Austrian Bishops' Conference .

The abbot bears the title of Abbot of Wettingen and Prior of Mehrerau ; he heads the Cistercian Congregation of Mehrerau as Praeses natus .

history

coat of arms

Originally the monastery was founded by Count Ulrich X. von Bregenz in Andelsbuch in the Bregenz Forest on the site of a hermitage. In 1083 Benedictines from Petershausen Monastery ( Konstanz ) were settled there. In 1090 the company moved to the shores of Lake Constance near Bregenz and on October 27, 1097, Bishop Gebhard III. from Konstanz the foundation stone was laid for the new church dedicated to St. Petrus and St. Paulus. In 1125 the church in the monastery “St. Peter in der Au ”and the church was consecrated.

In the course of the investiture controversy in Swabia and in the Lake Constance area, the Mehrerau was plundered and burned down by the supporters of Emperor Frederick II in 1245 in the battles between the papacy and the empire . When the abbey was dissolved, many buildings were completely demolished and the library scattered to the wind.

During the Appenzell Wars (1401–1429) the Mehrerau was not badly affected and even during the Swedish War, which hit the city of Bregenz in 1647, the convent buildings were looted but not damaged.

Under Abbot Gebhard Raminger (1582–1616) the entire monastery building was renovated and the magnificent library was built. In 1682, the Benedictine Father Placidus Helbock from Mehrerau wrote a brief history of the foundation of the monastery under the title Monasterii Brigantini prima origo . Until the second half of the 18th century, the monastery was able to enlarge its property through donations from the Counts of Montfort (successors to the Counts of Bregenz) and, in place of the earlier Romanesque basilica, from 1740 to 1743 under Abbot Franciscus Pappus von Tratzberg by the Vorarlberg baroque master builder Franz Anton Beer have a new monastery church built.

In 1805 Bregenz became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria and the monastery was abolished. The monastery was looted, the baroque church destroyed and the convent building adapted as a factory and barracks.

After 1850 the monastery was settled again and with the permission of Emperor Franz Joseph it became a refuge for the Cistercians of the Wettingen monastery in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland , which had been closed in 1841. On October 18, 1854, the abbey was opened under the name "Wettingen-Mehrerau".

Sanatorium built in 1923 by Clemens Holzmeister

In the 19th century, Mehrerau played a key role in the regaining of the Cistercian order. Wettingen was first a member of the Swiss and then the Austrian congregation. In 1888 Wettingen and the Abbey of Marienstatt broke away from the Austrian Congregation and formed the Mehrerau Congregation together with the Swiss convents that were subordinate to Wettingen-Mehrerau . It was founded in Parakeet (Slovenia) and Mogila (Poland).

In 1919 the monastery bought the Birnau pilgrimage church and the nearby Maurach Castle ; it still operates as a priory to this day . In Mehrerau, the monastery operates a sanatorium , which is run as a hospital, and the Collegium Bernardi , a grammar school with boarding school . The monastery is also active in the field of timber and agriculture, for example through a monastery estate, a monastery gardening, a carpentry and a joinery. Around the monastery Mehrerau since 2009, the orchard , a fruit trail dedicated. On the circular route, the orchards of the Lower Rhine Valley are presented at 20 stations .

In the course of the discussion about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church there were also reports of abuse cases from the 1950s to the 1990s in the abbey. In early 2010, for example, Spiegel reported on frequent child abuse and child abuse in the Mehrerau monastery school.

Building description

Monastery church

The church is dedicated to the feast of the Assumption and is located in the north of the monastery complex.

Church exterior

The church is a simple nave building with a straight transept. The entire structure is under a gable roof . The rectangular choir is drawn in and lower than the nave. The church tower connects directly to the choir. The church tower is two-story and is structured by corner pilasters. On the upper floor, the tower has arched openings as sound windows. The church tower is crowned by a gabled spire from 1872. On the gable facade is a risalit with a large circular window and a cast concrete sculpture wall with the theme of the " Apocalypse " It was created in 1961/1962 by Herbert Albrecht .

Church interior

The church forms a high, long hall with an open wooden roof. The walls are divided by high pilaster strips. There are light slots under the roof. The transept wall is broken through by large circular windows. On the right wall of the nave, three rectangular openings lead to the rectangular, low and flat-roofed side chapels. The presbytery with a semicircular end is slightly elevated. There is a wooden saddle ceiling above the choir room. At the west end of the nave is a gallery.

Furnishing

Jesus and the twelve apostles are depicted above the altar. The organ is in the left transept. In the right transept is the tabernacle of marble . This was created in 1963 by Hans Arp . In the front side chapel there is a “Passion of Christ” altar by Aelbert Bouts from the end of the 15th century. The elevation of the cross is shown on the middle wing of the altar, the carrying of the cross on the left side wing and the fall of the cross on the right wing. In the middle chapel, the Chapel of Grace, there is an altar with two wings on which the Annunciation is depicted. It was created in Swabia around 1480. In the rearmost side chapel hangs a panel depicting St. Anne and St. Paul . The panel painting comes from Bernhard Strigel's workshop around 1515. There is a Lady Chapel under the gallery. In this there is a statue of the Virgin Mary with a child. It comes from Swabia and was created around 1510. Another chapel is located at the exit to the lower church. In this there is a group of figures depicting the crucifix with Mary and John . The group of figures is from the beginning of the 16th century. Herbert Albrecht created the Apostle Crosses.

Congregational Chapel

The congregational chapel is consecrated to St. Bernard of Clairvaux and forms the north end of the collegiate wing on the second floor. The chapel was built between 1868 and 1888 according to a concept by Abbot Laurentius Wocher and plans by Jakob Hütle and then consecrated . The chapel is a building that just ends with a saddle roof with a bell tower on the north side, which is higher than the collegiate wing. This has an octagonal tower floor with a hood above a square basement.

Heilbad Mehrerau

The roots of the later sanatorium can be found in a therapeutic bath in the Mehrerau (so-called "Upper Bath"). The healing spring was a weak sulfur spring. With the sale of the spa to the monastery, the sanatorium was built (1922–1923, designed by Clemens Holzmeister ) which was opened in 1923 and continued to use the mineral spring until it dried up after 1935 because the water table sank.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Heinz Burmeister : On the furnishings of the Romanesque church of the Mehrerau monastery. In: Quarterly magazine for the past and present of Vorarlberg. 60th year 2008, issue 3
  2. ^ Alois Niederstätter : On the construction of story (s): the "blessed siblings" Diedo, Merbod and Ilga. In: Quarterly magazine for the past and present of Vorarlberg. 60th year 2008, issue 3
  3. ^ "The turbulent history of the Mehrerau" , OTS press release, February 18, 2009
  4. ↑ Holiday ideas for everything to do with apples. Educational trail, museums and festivals. In: Bodensee Ferienzeitung. Edition 2/2009. Südkurier Medienhaus, Konstanz 2009, p. 6.
  5. ↑ Childhood in the convent school: Hell, lifelong. In: Der Spiegel , March 3, 2010.
  6. ↑ a b c d e DEHIO manual. The art monuments of Austria: Vorarlberg. Bregenz. Mehrerau monastery. Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.), Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-7031-0585-2
  7. ↑ Mehrerau spa, a listed building .
  8. ^ Christoph Vallaster: Small Vorarlberger Heilbäderbuch. Book Spezial Verlag, Dornbirn 1984, ISBN 3-900496-03-3

literature

  • Kassian Lauterer, Ulrike Liebl: Mehrerau Abbey. Fink, Lindenberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89870-387-1 . (Art guide)
  • Kassian Lauterer: What does an abbot do in the bishops' conference? The Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau . In: Secretariat of the Austrian Bishops 'Conference (Ed.): 150 Years of the Austrian Bishops' Conference 1849–1999 . Vienna 1999, pp. 185–188.
  • Annemarie Bösch-Niederer: Mehrerau. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3045-7 .

Web links

Commons : Territorialabtei Wettingen-Mehrerau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files