Tegernsee Abbey

Coordinates: 47°42′27″N 11°45′24″E / 47.70750°N 11.75667°E / 47.70750; 11.75667
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Baroque style former Tegernsee Abbey and basilica

Tegernsee Abbey (

Benedictine monastery in the town and district of Tegernsee in Bavaria. Both the abbey and the town that grew up around it are named after the Tegernsee, the lake on the shores of which they are located. The name is from the Old High German
tegarin seo, meaning great lake.

Tegernsee Abbey, officially known as St. Quirinus Abbey for its patron saint St.Quirinus,[1] was first built in the 8th century. Until 1803, it was the most important Benedictine community in Bavaria.

Today, the monastery buildings are known as Schloss Tegernsee (Tegernsee Castle) and are in the possession of

brew pub
and a restaurant.

History

Tegernsee Abbey on the lake

Foundation and early history

On account of the disorders caused by the incursions of the Magyars at the beginning of the tenth century the founding of Tegernsee itself and the first decades of its history are hidden in deep obscurity. A fire in about 970 destroyed earlier evidence. The monastic community at Tegernsee was founded in 746 near the little Church of Our Saviour that was already in existence. The founders were the brothers Otkar (or Otocar), and Adalbert, of the family of the Huosi, one of the five old ruling clans of Bavaria.[2]

This abbey was consecrated and occupied in 754. It was settled by monks from

St. Gall and dedicated to Saint Quirinus a Roman martyr. It is well established that the founders of the abbey obtained the relics of Quirinus from Pope Paul I (757-67), and that these relics were translated from Rome to Tegernsee in the second half of the eighth century and were placed in the Church of Our Saviour, the first church of Tegernsee.[2] Soon the monastery spread the message of Christianity as far as Tyrol and Lower Austria
.

A well-known and detailed (but nevertheless entirely unverifiable) tradition about the foundation has developed. According to this tradition, Otkar and Adelbert were princes of the

Egern depicted the scene of the princes playing chess.[citation needed
]

The first abbot was Adalbert who took part in the Synod of Dingolfing in 770. Adalbert and his representative Zacho were present at the synod of St. Emmeram in Ratisbon (before 798). They were in the possession of Tegernsee which had been claimed by Bishop Atto of Freising. This demand was a result of the efforts of the episcopate of Bavaria of that era to limit as much as possible the parochial labours of the monasteries. The matter was adjusted by a settlement made at Tegernsee on 16 June, 804, on the occasion of the dedication of the Church of St. Peter at Tegernsee and the translation to it of the relics of Quirinus from the Basilica of St. Saviour.[2]

After the fall of

Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria (748-788), Tegernsee became a Carolingian Empire royal monastery during the Carolingian Renaissance. The community was greatly weakened by Hungarian raids and by repeated attempts at secularisation during the reign of Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria
(907-937). Besieged by frequent Hungarian raids and desperate to raise funds to finance a re-organized defense, Arnulf strengthened his power through confiscation of church lands and the secularization of numerous monastery estates. In the course of the 10th century suffered a sustained decline, culminating in the fire of around 970.

Middle Ages

Restored and re-founded, however, under Emperor

abbey of Saints Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg in c. 1012. Glass works were established at Tegernsee to make stained-glass windows for Bishop Gottschalk of Freising. The double doors of the cathedral of Mainz were cast at Tegernsee in 1014. In 1083 Abbot Gozbert established a bell foundry which, after Freising, was the oldest in Bavaria.[3]

This golden age of the abbey lasted almost to the end of the 12th century. Among the literary and scientific works produced at that time were: "Ruodlieb" (considered the first German novel; last third of the 11th century);[4] the Quirinals (12th century); "Play about the Antichrist" (1155?); and the Tegernsee Letter Collection (1178 to 1186). The well-known Tegernseespruch of Walther von der Vogelweide dates either from a little before 1206 or from c. 1212, and thus belongs, not to this period, but to the beginning of the period of decline that followed. Tegernsee was largely spared the political and ecclesiastical confusions arising from the conflict between Pope Alexander III (1159-1177) and Emperor Frederick I "Barbarossa," Holy Roman Emperor, and even managed to acquire substantial privileges from both pope and emperor. [5]

The shape of the future was made plain with the appointment of Abbot

Vögte (lords protectors) of Tegernsee, and Bishop Otto of Freising. The political and economic interests of the noble families of Berg, Andechs and Hohenstaufen
, now came to dominate the abbey and as a result, it declined during the 13th and 14th centuries into little more than a private monastery dependent on a small number of noble families. To make matters worse, it burnt down in 1410.

Later history to dissolution

However, in 1426, Tegernsee received a Visitation from the Vicar-General, Johannes Grünwalder, which marked a new beginning. Over the next decades, with the support of the

Council of Basle and died in 1450) wrote a work on music, and the Prior of Tegernsee, Bernhard von Waging (d. 1472) composed his mystical writings, including a defense of Cusanus' writings on "learned ignorance." The pilgrim and illustrator Anton Pelchinger taught music at Tegernsee. Around 1500 scribes of the monastery, including its librarian Konrad Sartori (died 1531), collated the Liber illuministarum - with 1.500 recipes one of the largest technical recipe
manuals in Europe.

This second flowering continued into the Early Modern period. From 1573, the monastery had its own

Benedictine Bavarian Congregation
, established in 1684.

Architecture

The former Carolingian style abbey church built at the end of the 10th century had been converted in the 11th to a Romanesque basilica, which in its turn had been re-fashioned between 1455 and 1460 into a Gothic church. The monastic buildings and the church were refurbished in the Baroque style between 1684 and 1688.

Secularisation

During the abbacy of Abbot Benedikt Schwarz (to 1787), the first signs began to show of the secularisation which eventually took place on 17 March 1803, thus bringing the abbey to an end. Gregor Rottenkolber, the last Abbot of Tegernsee, died on 13 February 1810. The greater part of the site was bought by Baron Drechsel for his brewery, but he later sold a small part back to an unofficial monastic community, which remained until 1861.

Herzogliches Bräustüberl

The buildings of the monastery itself were acquired in 1817 by king

Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria. The building is home to the Ducal Bavarian Brewery of Tegernsee but also to the Tegernsee Grammar School, the church of St. Quirinus and a restaurant called Bräustüberl.[6]
The brewery is owned by Duchess Maria Anna Henriette Gabrielle Julie in Bavaria, youngest daughter of the duke.

Abbots of Tegernsee

Burials

See also

References

  1. ^ "Tegernsee, Benediktinerabtei St. Quirinus". Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  2. ^ a b c Schmid, Ulrich. "Tegernsee." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 16 January 2023 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780761814634
  4. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ruodlieb". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 854.
  5. ^ "Tegernsee". Archived from the original on 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  6. ^ "Tegernsee Castle", Der Tegernsee

Sources

  • Hemmerle, Josef, 1970. Die Benediktinerklöster in Bayern (= Germania Benedictina, Bd.2), pp. 297ff. Ottobeuren.
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Tegernsee". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links


47°42′27″N 11°45′24″E / 47.70750°N 11.75667°E / 47.70750; 11.75667

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tegernsee_Abbey&oldid=1219523098"