Weingarten Abbey
Weingarten Abbey or
St. Martin's Abbey (
Reichsabtei Weingarten) is a
Benedictine monastery on the Martinsberg (
St. Martin's Mount) in
Weingarten near
Ravensburg in
Baden-Württemberg (
Germany).
In
1056 Welf I, Duke of Bavaria, founded a Benedictine monastery on the Martinsberg, overlooking the village of Altdorf, which was an inheritance from his mother. (In 1865 the village took the name of the monastery and is now the town of Weingarten.) He settled it with monks from
Altomünster Abbey. In 1126
Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, withdrew here after his abdication; he died the same year and was buried in the abbey church.
The name
Weingarten (
"vineyard") is documented from about 1123. The monks worked among other things at
manuscript illumination. Their most famous work is the "Berthold Sacramentary" of
1217, now in the
Pierpont Morgan Library in
New York. Also of especial note is the
Welfenchronik, written and illustrated in about
1190, chronicling and glorifying the
House of Welf which had its seat at
Ravensburg nearby.
The monastery was elevated to the status of a
"Reichsabtei" (i.e., independent of all territorial lordship except that of the monarchy) in
1274.
|
Ideal plan of Weingarten Abbey, 1723 |
It acquired territory of 306 km², stretching from the
Allgäu to the
Bodensee and including many forests and vineyards, and was one of the richest monasteries in southern Germany.
From
1715 the
Romanesque abbey church, constructed between
1124 and
1182, was largely demolished, and replaced between 1715–
1724 by a large and richly decorated
baroque church, which since
1956 has been a
papal basilica minor. This church was intended to stand within a monastic site built to the ideal layout, but this undertaking was only partially completed.
In
1803, during
secularisation, the abbey was dissolved. At first it became part of the possessions of the House of
Orange-Nassau, and then in
1806 part of the Kingdom of
Württemberg. The buildings were used inter alia as a factory and as a barracks.
In
1922 Weingarten was re-founded and re-settled by Benedictines from
Beuron Archabbey and from the
English Abbey of Erdington (in a suburb of
Birmingham) which had itself been settled from Beuron. In
1940 the monks were expelled by the
National Socialists, but were able to return after the end of the war.
|
Weingarten, showing the abbey buildings on the Martinsberg, 1917 |
The monks are responsible for the
pilgrimage to the Reliquary of the Holy Blood in the abbey church (the
Blutritt, as it is known); they also run a guesthouse.
Weingarten belongs to the
Beuronese Congregation of the
Benedictine Confederation. It is a monastery of two ecclesiastical traditions, or "rites". One part of the monks follow the
Roman observance, the other part the
Byzantine observance.
The abbey and church are a major attraction on the tourist route known as the
Oberschwäbische Barockstrasse, or the
"Baroque Road of Upper Swabia".
A wing of the abbey precincts accommodates the present monastery. Other parts of the former abbey house the
Pädagogische Hochschule Weingarten and the Academy of the
Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
* Alto c. 750-ca. 770 (in Altomünster)
* Marinus
* Etto c. 780
* Gelzo 780-792
* ...
* Rudolf c. 1000-1025
* Eberhard c. 1025-c. 1040
* Heinrich I 1040-c. 1070 (move to Weingarten 1055)
* Beringer c. 1070-c. 1080
* Adilhelm of Luxemburg c. 1080-c. 1088
* Walicho c. 1088-c. 1108
* Kuno Truchseß of Waldburg-Thann c. 1109-1132
* Arnold c. 1133-c. 1140
* Gerhard Truchseß of Waldburg-Thann c. 1141-c. 1149
* Burkhard c. 1149-c. 1160
* Dietmar of Matsch c. 1160-c. 1180
* Marquard of Triberg c. 1180-c. 1181
* Werner of Markdorff c. 1181-c. 1188
* Saint
Meingoz of Lechsgemünd c. 1188-1200
* Berthold of Heimburg 1200-1232
* Hugh de Montfort 1232-1242
* Konrad I of Wagenbach 1242-1265
* Hermann of Biechtenweiler 1265-1299
* Friedrich Heller von Hellerstein 1300-1315
* Konrad II von Ibach 1315-1336
* Konrad III von Überlingen 1336-1346
* Heinrich II von Ibach 1346-1363
* Ludwig von Ibach-Heldenberg 1363-1393
* Johann I von Essendorf 1393-1418
* Johann II Blaarer von Guttingen und Wartensee 1418-1437
* Erhard von Freybank 1437-1455 (d. 1462)
* Jobst Penthelin von Ravensburg 1455-1477
* Kaspar Schieck 1477-1491
* Hartmann von Knorringen-Burgau 1491-1520
* Gerwig Blarer von Görsperg 1520-1567
* Johann III Halblizel 1567-1575
* Johann Christoph Rastner von Zellersberg 1575-1586 (d. 1590)
* Georg Wegelin 1586-1627
* Franz Dietrich 1627-1637
* Domenicus I Laumann von Liebenau 1637-1673
* Alfons von Stadelmayer 1673-1683
* Willibald Kobold 1683-1697
* Sebastian Hyller 1697-1730
* Alfons II Jobst 1730-1738
* Placidus Renz 1738-1745 (d. 1748)
* Domenicus II Schnitzer 1746-1784
* Anselm Ritter 1784-1803
New foundation:
* Ansgar Höckelmann 1922-1934 (or 1943)
* Konrad Winter 1934 (or 1943)-1953
* Wilfrid Fenker 1953-1975
* Dr. Adalbert Metzinger 1975-1982
* Dr. Lukas Weichenrieder 1982-2004
* since 2004 Archabbot Theodor Hogg of Beuron has been administrator of Weingarten.
*
Kloster Weingarten's own website*
Pädagogische Hochschule*
Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart*
Klosterfestspiele
