Princely Abbey of Corvey

Coordinates: 51°46′44″N 9°24′34″E / 51.77885°N 9.40943°E / 51.77885; 9.40943
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Abbey church of Corvey
Year consecrated
844
Location
MunicipalityHöxter
StateNorth Rhine-Westphalia
Princely Abbey of Corvey is located in Germany
Princely Abbey of Corvey
Shown within Germany
Princely Abbey of Corvey is located in North Rhine-Westphalia
Princely Abbey of Corvey
Princely Abbey of Corvey (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Geographic coordinates51°46′44″N 9°24′34″E / 51.77885°N 9.40943°E / 51.77885; 9.40943
Architecture
StyleCarolingian, High Romanesque, Baroque
Europe and North America
Property12 ha (30 acres)
Buffer zone69 ha (170 acres)
Map
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500m
550yds
Abbey church of Corvey
Abbey church of Corvey
Abbey church of Corvey
Corvey today

The Princely Abbey of Corvey (German: Fürststift Corvey or Fürstabtei Corvey) is a former

UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.[1]

Territory of the Princely Abbey of Corvey in the 18th century

History of the abbey

Foundation and early years

In the

Benedictine abbey from Corbie Abbey in Picardy. They set up a Probstei, a subsidiary of the motherhouse. Due to the inappropriate location chosen, the monks chose to move in 822 – to the current location near what was then called Villa Huxori. The new house became known as Nova Corbeia (Latin for the "new Corbie"; Old German: Corvey pronounced [ˈkɔʁvaɪ]).[3][4]
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The first abbot of Corvey was a cousin of Charlemagne, Adalard of Corbie. Ansgar, who later became the "Apostle of Scandinavia", founded the abbey school in 823. The abbey library was established with works from Corbie, augmented by the output of the local scriptorium. In 826, Corvey became an independent abbey, dedicated to Saint Stephen. In 833, it was granted the right of coinage within the Franconian realm, as the first place east of the Rhine.[4]: 4–7 

In 836, the remains of

St Denis near Paris. Saint Vitus now became the patron saint of the Saxons. Since he was also one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, his veneration was very popular in the Middle Ages and Corvey became a destination for pilgrims. Other gifts and donations by individuals made Corvey one of the richest abbeys in Central Europe and made possible ambitious building projects. Its position as Reichsabtei meant that its abbot was answerable directly to the emperor in secular matters.[4]
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The first stone church was consecrated in 844.[5] In 873–885, the Westwerk that is still extant today was constructed.[6]

Corvey thus became "one of the most privileged Carolingian monastic sanctuaries in the 9th-century

Res gestae Saxonicae
. From its cloisters went forth a stream of missionaries who evangelised Northern Europe.

The site of the abbey, where the east-west route called the Hellweg crossed the Weser, was of some strategic importance and assured its economic and cultural importance. The abbey's historian H. H. Kaminsky estimates that the royal entourage visited Corvey at least 110 times before 1073, occasions for the issuance of charters.[citation needed]

Imperial rights granted

A diploma granted by

Otto I in 940, the first of its kind, established the abbot, Folcmar, in a new kind of setting. The abbot was granted bannus – powers of enforcement – over the population of peasants that were to seek refuge in the fortress built in the monastery's lands; in return they were expected to maintain its structure, under the abbot's supervision. The workforce under monastic protection was drawn from three pagi, under the jurisdiction of four counts, who, however, were to have no rights to demand castlework from them.[8]

Initial page of the Wernigerode Gospels. A 10th-century book illumination from the scriptorium of Corvey Abbey, now in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

Strife and decline

In the Investiture Controversy, the abbot of Corvey took a stand with the Saxon nobles against Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Its abbot Markward (served 1081–1107), "without doubt one of the most important abbots of the thousand-year history of the abbey" (Kaminsky), and his successor Erkenbert (1107–28) saw the abbey through the critical period.[citation needed]

The abbey also participated in attempts to reform the Catholic Church during the 11th century. It was the dominant theological centre in the region and established numerous subsidiary abbeys.[4]: 8 

A final period of prosperity followed under the leadership of Wibald (abbot from 1146–58). At that time, the Westwerk was reconstructed in the High Romanesque style, and the Carolingian three-tower set-up was replaced with twin towers. By the mid-12th century, a substantial town (also named Corvey) had grown up around the abbey.[4]: 8 

In 1265, the neighbouring town of Höxter, jealous of its nearby rival and its Weser bridge, allied itself with the Bishop of Paderborn and their troops destroyed the town of Corvey and damaged the abbey. The town never recovered and over the following decades reverted to a small village. This event marked the beginning of the long period of decline of the abbey.[4]: 8 

The Reformation threatened Corvey as it did the other ecclesiastical territories in north-west Germany but the princely abbey did survive somewhat precariously as a self-ruling principality at the border of Protestant Brunswick and Hesse-Kassel. From the mid-16th century onward, the prince-abbot and his monks ran the administration in cooperation with a partly Protestant assembly consisting of three noble families, one town (Höxter) and a prelate. The prince-abbot, who had a seat and vote in the Reichstag as a member of the College of Ruling Princes, took only a modest part in imperial affairs, while the home affairs of the abbey were limited to little more than gentry-like estate management.[9]

In 1508, books 1–6 of

Archbishop of Milan).[10]

In 1634, during the

Thirty Years War the abbey building was sacked by imperial troops who also laid siege to Höxter. It was later demolished. Only the Westwerk remained.[4]: 8 [5]

Reconstruction

It took decades for the local area to recover from the devastation of the war. After Christoph Bernhard von Galen, Bishop of Münster became prince and administrator of the abbey in 1665, reconstruction began. The Carolingian church was replaced by a Gothic building, with the exception of the Westwerk. Under von Galen's successors Christoph von Bellinghausen (1678–96), Florenz von der Felde (1696–1714) and Maximilian von Horrich (1714–22) the other substantial Baroque buildings still there today were erected.[4]: 10 

Courtyard of Corvey Abbey
Courtyard of Corvey Abbey

Prince-Bishopric of Corvey

In 1792, Corvey ceased to be a Benedictine abbey and was raised by pope

Pius VI to the status of a prince-bishopric. Theodor von Brabeck [de] (abbot/bishop 1776–94) and Ferdinand von Lüninck [de] (bishop 1794–1825, also bishop of Munster 1821–1825) were the last ecclesial princes at Corvey.[4]
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In 1803, the Prince-Bishopric of Corvey was

Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg, in 1820.[4]
: 10–11 

While Corvey had ceased to exist as a political state in 1803, it continued to exist as a diocese until 1825.[4]: 10 

Schloss Corvey

The Kaisersaal of Corvey Abbey
Schloss Corvey viewed from the north

Landgrave Victor Amadeus rebuilt the abbey buildings as a Schloss (palace). In 1834, the property fell to

Victor von Hohenlohe-Schillingfürst, a member of the House of Hohenlohe. In 1840, he was granted the title Herzog von Ratibor und Fürst von Corvey (Duke of Ratibor and Prince of Corvey) by King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Since then, Schloss Corvey has remained property of the family.[4]
: 11 

Library

Main article: Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey

The famous abbey library has long since been dispersed, but the "princely library" (

Romantic novels, some in unique copies, for in Britain fiction was more often borrowed than bought, and was read extensively in the lending libraries.[11] The poet and author of the Deutschlandlied, August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, worked here as librarian from 1860 until his death in 1874.[5] He is buried in the church graveyard.[4]
: 50 

Today

The present owner of the palace is Viktor, 5th Duke of Ratibor and 5th Prince of Corvey, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst-Metternich-Sándor (b. 1964). The palace, library, and church are today open to the public.

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  2. ^ The site, Hethis, is not securely identifiable (Hethis, noting Herbert Krüger, "Wo lag Hethis, der Ort der ersten Corveyer Klostergründung?", Mannus 24, Leipzig, (1932:320—32)).
  3. ^ Duden Aussprachewörterbuch (6 ed.). Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG. 2006.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-3-942712-18-7
    .
  5. ^ a b c Nathan, Carola (August 2014). "Ideenwelt der Karolinger". Monumente (in German). p. 34.
  6. ^ "Odysseus in der Kirche (German)". Monumente-online.de. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  7. ^ Leyser, Karl. "Ottonian Government" The English Historical Review 96, No. 381 (October, 1981), p. 735.
  8. ^ Leyser, Karl. "Henry I and the Beginnings of the Saxon Empire", The English Historical Review 83, No. 326 (Jan., 1968), p.9
  9. ^ G. Benecke, Society and Politics in Germany 1500–1750, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1974, pp.102–103.
  10. ISBN 0-8018-6253-1
    Johns Hopkins University Press page 543
  11. ^ The library has been discussed as a cultural marker in the record of a symposium at Corvey, Rainer Schöwerling, Hartmut Steinecke and Norbert Otto Eke, Die Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey: ihre Bedeutung für eine neue Sicht der Literatur des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts,1992, and Werner Huber and Rainer Schöwerling, The Corvey Library and Anglo-German cultural exchanges, 1770–1837, 2004.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Corvey.


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