St. Trudpert's Abbey
Encyclopedia
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
in Münstertal
Münstertal, Black Forest
Münstertal is a municipality in the southern Black Forest, which belongs to the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is 3 miles east from Staufen.-Notes:...
in the southern Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, now the principal house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert
Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint-Marc are a Roman Catholic congregation of Religious Sisters, based in the town of Saint-Marc, Alsace, France.-History:...
.
History
According to tradition, St. Trudpert's Abbey originated with Saint Trudpert, an Irish missionary and martyr in the southern Black Forest in the first half of the 7th century. He established a hermitage in Münstertal which became a monastery in the 9th century, and which by, at the latest, 900 had expanded to a monastic community supported by the influential noble family of the Liutfride. It is recorded that relicRelic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s of Trudpert were translated
Translation (relics)
In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...
to the abbey in 901 and shortly after 965.
The abbey's development during the next few centuries seems to have been peaceful: no involvement either in ecclesiastical reform or in the Investiture Controversy
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was the most significant conflict between Church and state in medieval Europe. In the 11th and 12th centuries, a series of Popes challenged the authority of European monarchies over control of appointments, or investitures, of church officials such...
is recorded. The community's estates lay principally in the Münstertal
Münstertal
Münstertal may refer to:*Val Müstair, Switzerland*Münstertal, Black Forest, Germanysee also* Taufers im Münstertal, Italy...
, the Breisgau
Breisgau
Breisgau is the name of an area in southwest Germany, placed between the river Rhine and the foothills of the Black Forest around Freiburg im Breisgau in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, which partly consists of the Breisgau, is named after that area...
, the Ortenau
Ortenau
The Ortenau is a historical territory in Baden-Württemberg, located on the right bank of the River Rhine. It covers approximately the same area as the Ortenaukreis, a present-day district....
and in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
. It also acquired the lordship of Tunsel and the parishes of Münstertal, Grunern, Krozingen, Tunsel, Laufen
Laufen
Laufen is a municipality on the southeastern border of Bavaria with Austria.-History:It was first mentioned in a deed of 748. The rapids that gave the town the name were also responsible for the town's wealth from the salt trade...
, Biengen and others.
The abbey was also able to capitalise on the silver-mining industry that developed in the region in the later Middle Ages, on the basis of which the small town of Münster grew up below the abbey. In 1346, together with the castle of Burg Scharfenstein, a property of the Staufer, it was destroyed by armed men from Freiburg, and shortly afterwards flooded, from which disasters it never recovered, and was abandoned. The monastery in turn suffered an economic decline in the latter half of the 14th century, apparently during the time of abbot Paul I (1435-1455). In 1525 St. Trudpert's was plundered during the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...
. In 1632 it was destroyed by the Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
during the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
.
Around 1200 the lords of Staufen, ministeriales of the dukes of Zähringen, acquired Vogtrechte (rights of advocacy or stewardship) over St. Trudpert's. The monastery reacted by the production of forged documents purporting to establish a higher Vogtei
Vogtei
Vogtei could be:* The residenz or domain of a Vogt* Vogtei , a municipal association in the Unstrut-Hainich district of Thuringia, Germany....
of the Counts, later Dukes, of Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
, with the consequence that until their extinction in 1601 the Staufer functioned as under-Vögte of the Habsburgs. The Habsburg over-Vogtei also meant that the abbey became part of the lordship of Vorderösterreich and thus a Habsburg monastery. As such it was secularised
German Mediatisation
The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....
in 1806 and became part of the Grand Duchy of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
.
Several medieval church and monastery buildings are evidenced, for example a rebuilding of the monastery in 902, and again (possibly after an attack by the Hungarians at the beginning of the 10th century) at some time before 962.
Buildings
The basilicaBasilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
, with three aisles, was extended by the addition of a westwork
Westwork
A westwork is the monumental, west-facing entrance section of a Carolingian, Ottonian, or Romanesque church. The exterior consists of multiple stories between two towers. The interior includes an entrance vestibule, a chapel, and a series of galleries overlooking the nave...
in about 1100; in the 15th century new monastic buildings were constructed, as well as a Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
long choir (Langchor). After the destruction of the claustral buildings by the Swedes in 1632 there followed an interim rebuild, which made way for the Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
new build between 1712 and 1716. The unparalleled stucco work on the high altar was created by Johann Joseph Christian
Johann Joseph Christian
Johann Joseph Christian was a German Baroque sculptor and woodcarver. His masterworks are considered to be the choir stalls in Zwiefalten Abbey and Ottobeuren Abbey....
when his son Karl Anton Christian (1731–1810) became abbot here.
Two crosses in niello
Niello
Niello is a black mixture of copper, silver, and lead sulphides, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal. It can be used for filling in designs cut from metal...
work from the 13th century have been preserved. From the monastery library comes a manuscript of the second half of the 14th century containing the "St. Trudperter Hohelied", the "first book of German mysticism", as it is sometimes known, a Lower Alemannic
Alemannic
Alemannic may refer to:* Alamanni, a Germanic tribe of the first millennium* Alemannic German, a dialect family in the Upper German branch of the German languages and its speakers...
text from the 12th century.
Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert
The Sisters of St. Joseph of St. TrudpertSisters of St. Joseph of St. Trudpert
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint-Marc are a Roman Catholic congregation of Religious Sisters, based in the town of Saint-Marc, Alsace, France.-History:...
took over the premises in 1919-1920 after their expulsion from Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
and have undertaken major construction work not only on the monastic buildings themselves but also on hospital and other medical building projects.
Abbots of St.Trudpert to 1543
- Humbertus (provost? abbot?) (833 or 878 ?)
- Walderich (abbot) (902)
- Adalbero (provost) (968)
- Eberhard (abbot) (1144-1156)
- R. (1181)
- Hugo (1184-1189?)
- Heinrich I (1186-1215)
- Konrad (1216-1242)
- Absolon (1242)
- Werner I (1246-1288)
- Werner II (1288-1302)
- Bertold (1302-1310)
- Heinrich II (1310-1319)
- Werner III (1319-1354?)
- Nikolaus I (1363?-1384)
- Diethelm von Staufen (1384-1410)
- Ulrich (1411)
- Konrad Löser (1412-1432)
- Paul I (1435-1455)
- Nikolaus II Zeller (1455-1483)
- Rudolf Schmidlin (1484-1487)
- Othmar Arnold (1487-1505)
- Ägidius (1505-1510)
- Martin I Gyr (1510-1526)
- Martin II Löffler (1529-1543)
- […]
Sources
- Buhlmann, Michael, 2004. Benediktinisches Mönchtum im mittelalterlichen Schwarzwald. Ein Lexikon. Vortrag beim Schwarzwaldverein St. Georgen e. V., St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, 10. November 2004, Tl. 1: A-M, Tl. 2: N-Z (= Vertex Alemanniae, H.10/1-2), pp. 84f. St. Georgen.
- Mangold, Klaus, 2003. Das Kreuz aus St. Trudpert in Münstertal, Schwarzwald, in der Staatlichen Ermitage St. Petersburg. Munich: Hirmer. ISBN 3-7774-9910-2.
- Quarthal, Franz (ed.), 1976. Die Benediktinerklöster in Baden-Württemberg (= Germania Benedictina, vol. 5), pp. 606-613. Ottobeuren.
- Sebert, Werner, 1962. Die Benediktinerabtei St. Trudpert im Münstertal. Karlsruhe, Technische Hochschule: dissertation.