So far I have not included any churches from France! This example is special : the great chapel used by the Kings of France in their great palace at Versailles. I must have visited Versailles about six times and the tragedy is that this is one of the first rooms seen and is full of those ubiquitous umbrella-led groups. It is less of a bear garden than the the Sistine chapel though! Try a little of the video below to relive those chaotic moments!
See what I mean?!
For a detailed in depth description see the excellent article on Wikipedia here, It is the fifth such chapel. I had no idea! This present fifth chapel is a masterpiece by Jules Hardouin-Mansart begun in 1689 and consecrated in 1710. (This reminds me that Versailles must have been a building site much of Louis XIV'S reign : rather like the city of London now - different style of course).
Te Deums will have been sung here to celebrate victories and birth of children marriages, deaths etc.
Last year I saw advertised recreations of such performances : prices were astronomical and I regret I did not use Eurostar to Paris to attend! Therefore it is with pleasure that I am featuring some little videos to give the mood.
There is some nice atmosphere here. Watch a little to get the idea.Grand Dialogue by Louis Marchand played on the 1710 Cliquot organ
Now this is the real thing! Period instruments including a serpent recorded in the chapel, The famous Te Deum (Eurovision music) is very jolly! Chapelle Royale de Versailles, playing Marc Antoine CHARPENTIER, Te Deum, Conductor Martin Gester, Le Parlement de Musique. This is terrific!
Not in the Chapel but gives the idea of triumph superbly. What a super track. Just the thing to play through headphones to brighten up walks from the station!
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1636 - 1704)
Marche de Triomphe et Second Air de Trompette in D major: 2. Second Air de Trompette" by Musica Antiqua Köln & Reinhard Goebel
This Cistercian house was founded in 1137 in a river valley of the river Kamp. It was extensive and only completed in 1218. by the end of the 14th century it was in danger and plundered several times.The most serious occasion was in 1426 when 4000 Hussites attacked and burnt it down. Rebuilit in the first half of the 15th century there were 40 monks again by the end of the century. The Protestant Reformation reduced the community to six. Again it recovered and the 17th and 18th century saw the abbey at its height. It continues to this day as a working Abbey.
There are buildings from Romanesque through Baroque and a major rebuild took place in the 18th century. The massive church tower was constructed by Josef Munggenast. at 325 feet it is the highest tower of a Cistercian monastery.
The famous Egedacher organ dates from 1728-1731. The video below of the organ is wonderful and means a lot to me, because I sometimes play parts of Muffat Apparatus-Musicus Organasticus. The difference is of course that I play an Allen computer organ and this is the real authentic organ sound.
The 1731 Johann Ignaz Egedacher organ in the monastery church of Zwettl is quite unique in that all of the manual pipework is in the case hanging on the gallery (Brustwerk), while the two main cases only contain the pedal pipes.
Egedacher built a three-manual organ , of which the third manual is quite unique in that it doesn’t contain any 8-foot flue stops. The reed stop Fagot/Huboa is in actual fact a type of Regal with very short wooden resonators.
In 1753 the organ was re-voiced and exactly 100 years later the tracker action was rebuilt. Josef Breinbauer revoiced the organ in 1880 and added a few Romantic stops. Rieger altered the organ again in 1912. Then in 1941 Ferninand Molzer built a new 3-manual electro-pneumatic organ which could be played from the Egedacher console. As this turned out not to be a success, the organ was dismantled in 1983 and Gerhard Hradetzky reconstructed the original specification, tracker action, wind system and temperament. Jürgen Ahrend revoiced the organ in 1991.
Zwettl was blessed with outstanding abbots in the 17th and 18th centuries. There was Abbot Link (1646-71), Caspar Bernhardt (1672-1695) who created the series of closed courtyards characteristic of urban Baroque style.The library has frescos by Paul Troger. The Abbot's lodging has white facades with pale yellow plaster. Abbot Melchior Zaunagg (1706-47 transformed the church, complete with massive retable above the high altar. He was responsible for bringing in the best painters, sculptors, stucco workers, cabinet makers, stained glass makers and fresco painters to decorate his church. The result is a wonderful combination of medieval and Baroque : a tribute to the collaboration of Abbot Zaunagg with his architect Josef Munggenast and art adviser Matthias Steinl.
We visited with guided tour in 2008.
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Abbey church .Photo by Welsserstler on Flickr CC
Zwettle Abbey aerial view
Library. Photo by Welsserstler on Flickr CC
General video about Zwettl with interesting section on the library
Neresheim was founded in 1095 as a house of (secular) Augustinian Canons, and converted to a Benedictine monastery in 1106.
In the 13th century, the abbey owned seven villages and it had an income from a further 71 places in the area. Ten parish churches were incorporated. During wars and conflicts the monastery was destroyed several times. The Thirty Years' War in the 17th century and Napoleonic Wars of the beginning of the 19th century were both disastrous.
After much internal debate, in 1745, the decision was taken to build a new abbey church instead of rebuilding the old Romanesque church, which had been superficially updated to the Baroque style in the late 17th century. Abbot Amandus Fischer (1711–29) had brought in architect Dominikus Zimmermann to rebuild and redecorate the abbey's Festsaal, which was carried out in 1719-20 in a high Rococo style. Seeking stylistic continuity with his predecessor's building program, Abbot Aurelius Braisch (1739–55) commissioned architect and building engineer Johann Balthasar Neumann to rebuild the abbey church in 1747. Neumann, the most sought-after architect in central Europe at the time, had designed the pilgrimage church of Vierzehnheiligen and the Residenz at Würzburg, which were admired for their light formal invention, sumptuous materials and lightness of touch. Neumann's plan called for a conventional basilica consisting of nave, crossing and choir which were articulated as a series of oval-shaped bays surmounted with shallow domes.
Work began on the new church in 1750, but Neumann's premature death in 1753 necessitated the finding of new builders willing to carry out Neumann's plans. Subsequent architects altered or abandoned the original design, particularly the construction and profile of the domes, which slowed progress. The finished church, consecrated in 1792, should be attributed to Neumann with reservations or characterized as the work of disparate hands.
The domes were frescoed by Austrian painter Martin Knoller over the 6 summers of 1770-75. Seven scenes from the Life of Christ are depicted, including Christ among the Doctors, the Last Supper and the Ascension.
Johann Nepomuk Holzhey of Ottobeuren built the last of the great South-German, Baroque organs at Neresheim over the years 1792-1797.
In 1802 the monastery was suppressed and secularized. Due to the disruptions caused by the Napoleonic invasion, custodianship over the abbey's assets and property was granted to the Princely House of Thurn und Taxis for the years 1803-06. Afterwards, the Bavarian state assumed ownership. Both the abbey and the County of Thurn un Taxis were annexed by the kingdom of Württemberg in 1810.[1]
Precious objects were bought from Thurn und Taxis by Bavaria. The Prince of Thurn und Taxis funded and refounded the monastery, which opened in 1919. The first abbot was Bernhard Durst (1921–65). In 1919, the abbey was resettled by Benedictines from Beuron Abbey and the Emaus Abbey in Prague.
The pilgrimage church of Marienberg has been called called the "Pearl of the Salzach Valley".We encountered it by chance while cycling from Burghausen to Railtenhaslach. It was amazing to find this jewel at that point.I often think of it. It came across as a special place and that is why I am featuring it!
When the Cistercians of Schiitzing moved their monastery to Raitenhaslach in the Middle Ages, there was already a "capella" at Marienberg. In the course of the centuries, the church was rebuilt, extended, finally after 1760.
For the new building the abbot Emmanuel II Mayr commissioned Franz Alois Mayr (1723-1771) The Munich painter Martin Heigl, a student of Johann Baptist Zimmermann, did the frescoes: on a series of Marian themes.
The ceiling pictures were the first great works of Martin Heigl as fresco painter. The monastery Raitenhaslach also gave him numerous orders. Above the high altar, the Annunciation is portrayed, on the north side, the visitation and the birth of Christ, and the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple on the underside of the gallery.
On May 1, 1765, the prince-bishop Sigismund of Salzburg consecrated the church. The visitor ascends the 50 steps, which point to the 50 Ave Marias of the Rosary. The high altar features a holy image from the 17th century by Johann Georg Lindt, a sculptor who lived in Burghausen since 1758: Mary as Queen of Heaven with sceptre in her hand and Jesus in her arms surrounded by angels and saints.
The side altars come from the workshop of Georg Lindt and Georg Kapfer, the paintings of the Anna and Bernhard altar by Peter Lorenzoni, the cross and Johannes altar by Wilhelm Epple.
In 1806, the parish was moved from Marienberg to Raitenhaslach and the church on the Marienberg was closed and "released" for demolition. The holy image and other fittings were brought to Raitenhaslach and some were auctioned.
The long "struggle for Marienberg" began when the Marienberger peasants protested against the demolition ordered by the landlord Franz von Armansperg. Some of the "resistors" were even imprisoned. A petition was sent to the Bavarian Crown Prince and later to King Ludwig I. With success, on 29 August 1811 a church service was held again in the church. On January 15, 1815, the image of grace again returned to the church.
Renovation work went on from 2001 to 2011 and was going on when we visited in 2009.
Engraving of Metten Abbey from the "Churbaierisches Atlas" of Anton Wilhelm Ertl, 1687
In October 2016 I wrote "It is a great pleasure to feature this abbey as it is going to be high on my "to visit" list when next in the area. I have located some excellent photos from flickr and and outstanding YouTube videos. I almost feel I have been there already! " On 3 September 2019 I was there! We needed a base in east central Bavaria alongside the Czech border. Metten fitted the bill exactly: small place with Baroque abbey and famous library. This was to be our only hotel stop among stays in holiday flats. Taking a rest from our own cooking we experienced massive dinners in our hotel's Brazilian restaurant! Groaning tables of starters, fabulous meats cooked on skewers and finally kebabbed fresh warm pineapple.
Anyway, to business! The first day we explored the nearby abbey church..The Benedictine Abbey was founded in 766 by Gamelbert of Michaelsbuch. For many centuries Metten was under the Dukes and Electors of Bavaria. When Charlemagne stayed in Regensburg for three years after 788, Utto turned his abbey over to the Frankish ruler, making the Ducal Abbey a Royal Abbey. After the Carolingians became extinct, Metten was turned into an Imperial Abbey. Besides the work of land clearance in the Bavarian border territories, the monks were very active in education. Members of the abbey were not only schoolteachers, but also members of the Bavarian Academy of Science in Munich and professors of philosophy and theology in Freising and Salzburg.
The late 15th century church was rebuilt in Baroque style 1712-1729 to form a wall-pillar church with 4 bay nave, narrower choir and twin-towered western façade with a most imposing apsidal central section under a half dome. The 15th century nave walls were reused as wall pillars with walls moved outwards.
Frescoes by Innozenz Warathi (of Sterzing in the Tirol) and the huge nave fresco covers the whole ceiling. Fine stucco work by Franz Josef Holzinger (also from the Tyrol) and high altar by Jakob Schopl with a painting of St Michael casting down satan by C. D. Asam.
St Michael casts out Satan by CD Asam
Nave ceiling fresco.Photo by Janos
Korom (Flickr CC)
After secularisation in 1803 the abbey's property was confiscated, and by 1815 had all been auctioned off. Over a number of years Johann von Pronath acquired the greater part of the former premises and succeeded in persuading King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1830 to re-establish the monastery, which by 1837 had been set up to incorporate a boarding school (Gymnasium), in continuance of its educational traditions, which the monastery has run to this day.
The re-founded abbey was very active in restoring new monasteries. Since 1858 it has been a member of the Bavarian Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation.
THe church is very much alive with regular Masses and devotions. A bus load arrived while we were there for a special Mass. Clearly a prayerful place with usual enticing west end organ I am sorry we didnt manage to get to a service.
Court of the abbey. Photo by Janos Korom (Flickr CC)
Confessionals in the church. Photo by Janos Korom (Flickr CC)
Nave ceiling fresco.Photo by Janos Korom (Flickr CC)
Organ gallery.Photo by Janos Korom (Flickr CC)
Introduction to the sung music tradition at Metten. Fantastic clear German diction.
Early the next day we queued in the cloister for a guided tour of the library. Our party of four were iushered through corridors and locked doors to reach possibly the most beautiful library I have ever seen. This library of 1722-6 has 150,000 volumes with outstanding decorations again by F. J. Holzinger and Innozenz Warathi. Superb wooden bookshelves by Jakob Scopf. We were bombarded with vast amounts of other information in a classic illustration of how not to do a tour ALL IN GERMAN! No introductions at the start to establish rapport ; no concessions to foreigners ; no guiding round the shelves or exhibition cabinets ; no photos allowed ; only a virtual ego trip monologue! To be fair he was a real Benedictine inmate who had too much to do. So glad we saw this wonderful room. You can visit in the little video below.
Short film showing the superb Baroque library.Rather different from the ones I have worked in.
There was no opportunity to see the Festsaal of 1734-59 by Benedict Schottl and his son Albert. has stucco work by Mathias Obermayer and ceiling fresco of the Second Coming by Martin Speer. To see this look at the little video below.
A hill 177 meters high at Andechs has long been regarded as a Holy Mountain. For many centuries until the mid 13th it contained a castle and was the seat of the Counts of Andechs and Diessen. Holy relics were brought from the Holy Land by Saint Rosso in the 10th century. After the Counts became extinct, the Wittelsbach family of Munich tried to take over the relics. However they were returned in the 15th century and eventually came under the charge of the newly founded Benedictine monastery in 1455/8. A 15th century hall church was built.A new two storey high altar was consecrated in 1609. The Holy Hosts and other sacred objects are exposed at the upper altar during great pilgrimages.in 1669 a major fire raged Kaspar Zuccali was involved in the rebuilding.Stucco work was done by artists from the Wessobrunn area.A renovated main altar was donated by the Bishop of Augsburg in 1678/98 and is the work of Johann Baptists Straub..Finally the interior decoration of the church was completed by Johann Baptist Zimmermann.
My photo from 2019
Double high altar. (Allle-Caulfield from flickr under CC)
Ceiling (Digital Cat from flickr under CC)
Our featured music here is a Te Deum by Nonnosus Madlseder (1730-1797) who was a Benedictine monk at Andechs. Years later Carl Orff, the fanous composer of Carmina Burana was buried here at Andechs.
Te Deum by Madlseder
Beer has been brewed here for over 900 years. There is now a beer garden that purports to seat 3500 people! We sat in this in our 2019 tour....The food was unforgetable : I mean great!
Perfection in a glass!(Andrew Fleming on flickr under CC)
Salem Abbey by Jacob Andreas Fridrich (1648–1751) after a drawing by Christoph Lienhardt(1648–1714), published in Apiarium Salemitanum, 1708.
From about 1285 to 1425 the Cistercian Salem Abbey was built in the Gothic style. In the 17th century, the Thirty Years' War brought death and destruction.Following a huge fire during the night of 9 March 1697, which almost completely destroyed the imperial abbey, Abbot Emanuel Sulger ordered the Vorarlberg architect Franz Beer to rebuild the monastery. In just ten years, the architect built the 180 meter long complex comprising the Prelature and convent building, symmetrically divided by central and corner pavilions. Monks lived in the convent building while the abbot lived in the Prelature. The magnificent rooms emphasize the abbey's standing. The heyday of the monastery ended with the German secularisation in 1803 and the territory fell to the Margraviate of Baden.It remains the private property of the House of Baden. THe Church has been the parish church for Salem since 1808.
When I first posted about Salem I had not visited. In summer 2018 we visited by bus from Meersburg. The abbey complex is huge and I also remember the large wine cellar, the school, distillery museum, fire brigade museum , stables and canal running underground. Altogether a remarkable survival. Most interesting to me were the prelatrure buildings in baroque style - some of the best I have seen.
The canal in the centre of the complex, a source of water,
so necessary in any monastery site.
Gatehouse of 1735 which housed the abbey pharmacy
Nave with baroque monuments
18th century Choir stalls by JA Feuchtmayer, Johann Georg Dirr,
Franz Anton Dirr and Johann Georg Wieland
By No machine-readable author provided. Saberhagen assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=661334
There were three organs in various places by Karl Joseph Riepp
Remarkable late Gothic sacrament houseAdd caption
Closeup of the sacarament house
The bernard corridor : part of the old Cloister : note the superb stucco work
by FJFeuchtmayr and Michael Wiedermann. Paintings of life of St Bdernard
by Andreas Brugger added c 1760.
Famous summer refectory
The superb stucco work and ceiling recall the religious meaning of dining together. There is a pulpit by JA Feuchmayer, The stove is unforgttable snd much photographed. Alas we did not have sufficient time to do this justice. Designed by Daniel Meyer from Steckborn in 1733. It shows the ora et labora of Benedictine life.
The 18th century stove
Close-up of a tile on the stove
The Library today.
The Prelature first floor contained the Library which originally had 40,000 to 60,000 books. It was renovated in the 18th century with a gallery and new book shelves. At the start of the 19th century with the secularisation the books were taken to Heidelberg University.
Second floor corridor leading to Abbot's appartments
Secretary to the Abbot's office
Abbot Anselm II
Abbot Constantin Miller
Antechamber to the Abbot's drawing room
Abbot Anselm's drawing room
Abbot Anselm II Schwab had the drawing room arranged in 1764 by Johann Georg Dirr. Quite the opposite of pompous, the Rococo style room appears rather playful. Stucco décor, a cycle of paintings about the life of Christ, two grandfather clocks and a beautiful parquet floor: this was how the abbot received his guests. A painting by Andreas Brugger above the door in the anteroom depicts the monastery fire of 1697. Green tendrils and gilded muscular figures adorn the secretary's adjacent room.
Abbit Anselm's drawing room
THe abbot's bedroom
Abbot's bedroom
Kaaisersaal or Imperial Hall
This mighty room was the Abbey's principle reception room. The stucco decoration is thte masterpiece of Franz Joseph Feuchtmayer, who came to Salem in 1707n for the rebuilding. There are life size figures of empooperors and niches with portraits of popes. THe illustrations above the four doors show the allegories of war and peace, state and church. They underlikne the idea of the reign of the Holy Church.
Finally here is some music by a former monk. There must have been a rich musical tradition here.
Andreas Heichlinger (1746 - 1809) Cistercian monk.at Salem
A monastery was founded in Lambach in Upper Austria in about 1040 by Count Arnold II of Lambach-Wels. His son, Bishop Adalbero of Würzburg (later canonised), changed the monastery into a Benedictine abbey in 1056.During the 17th and 18th centuries a great deal of work in the Baroque style was carried out, much of it by the Carlone family.
Lambach escaped the dissolution of the monasteries of Emperor Joseph II in the 1780s. It was however dissolved by the National Socialists in 1941, in the Operation Klostersturm, and the premises were used for the accommodation of a Nazi school and training institution. The Benedictines were exiled or taken for forced labour. The dispossessed monastic community returned to Lambach Abbey after the end of World War II.
The abbey has preserved much of cultural interest. It contains the oldest extant Romanesque frescoes in Southern Germany and Austria, and the former abbey tavern, now a pharmacy, with a beautiful Baroque façade. The abbey's Baroque theatre has also been restored to working order and the summer refectory from the early 18th century by Carlo Antonio Carlone has been converted into a concert hall. The ambulatory by Diego Carlone from the same period is of great magnificence. An unexpected feature is the set of Baroque dwarves in the monastery garden (see also Gleink Abbey).
The abbey church was also refurbished in the Baroque style, with an organ by Christoph Egedacher and contains the tomb of Saint Adelbero. The abbey also possesses the medieval St. Adelbero's Chalice, although it is rarely on view to the public, besides a large collection of sacred art. The library was constructed about 1691 and contains approximately 50,000 volumes as well as archive material.
The above description from Wikipedia suggests this is very worthy of our attention!
This photo of Lambach Abbey is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Romanus Weichlein (1650 - 1706) organist at Lambach Missa Rectorum Cordium (violini, viola, violoncello, 3 clarini, timpani, 2 trombe, organi)
